Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

I hiked this afternoon at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord.  I almost never see what I am hoping to see when I go there, but there is always a stand out of some sort.  Today, it had to be the Great Blue Heron.  I saw it in the channel on my way in and it had moved even closer to the trail by the time I headed out, fishing only about 30 feet off the path.  Beautiful!

Peek - a - boo

Great Blue Heron "doing his best swan impression"

Back to fishing

Pearl Crescent

a little Fall Color

Marsh Hawk (aka Northern Harrier)

Two marsh hawks were hunting on the far side of the north impoundment.  They were fun to watch but hard to get a good photo because of the distance.

 Dragonfly (looks like he has sunglasses on)

Goldfinch

I love the colors in this photo.  This weed sure is popular with the seed-eating birds. 

There were a lot of noisy flocks of birds out in the middle of the marsh.  I think they were red-winged blackbirds.

 This looks like lace.   I couldn't get over how perfectly it was eaten.... 

The leaf colors are pretty for this early in the season.

 more Marsh Hawk hunting

 Pearl Crescents

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron