Jessa and I went to Schwer Park in Papillion yesterday, I to fish and she to photograph Baltimore orioles. The fishing was steady—lots of potato-chip bluegills eager for drowned ants and the occasional beetle.
The orioles, however, while definitely present, were less obliging than we had hoped, and Jessa ended up with only one photo.
She did document other icterids at the park, including brown-headed buffalo birds...
...and red-winged blackbirds...
...but her most dramatic shots were of common grackles in enraged but futile pursuit of a red-tailed hawk that had made off with one of their own.
Another small drama occured when this robin landed in front of Jessa with a beakful of worms...
...leading her to discover a well-situated nest in a hawthorn.
The nestlings, unlike their parents, seemed undisturbed by Jessa's inadvertent intrusion, but then became fledglings as she turned to go, abandoning their redoubt in what she described as an explosion of robinlets. We wish them well...and recommend they watch out for a certain red-tailed hawk that seems fond of young birds.
More shots from the park (all by Jessa, as I continued to fish my way around the pond):
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