Sharp-shinned Hawk hunting lunch on the wing. American Kestrel eyeballing lunch on the ground. Merlin on the airborne hunt for lunch. Bloody talons, swollen crop: Cooper’s Hawk digesting lunch.

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Raven on the antenna. Crow, too. Two crows. (And as Newark is in the distance, several planes.)

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Look! Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane… …it’s a Monarch. October 18th.

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Blue Jay reading the Riot Act to a male American Kestrel with a lizard. Second-string: Northern Mockingbird on the lower right.

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Mulsant’s Water Treaders/Mesavellia mulsanti, one of the small semiaquatic bugs. These were on a rock in a pond.

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Sometimes bee-catchers.

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Lizard intake October 9th. Lizard intake October 12. A Blue Jay interrupted this afternoon snack, in an incident which will be the subject of this coming Sunday’s post.

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First Merlin sighting of the Fall Raptor Season, October 9th. Here the bird is eying a male American Kestrel on the next tree over (subject of a later post). Intent on a passing songbird. In pursuit. (Unsuccessfully.) First Red-shouldered Hawk of the season, October 12th. (This is a juvenile.)

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For such a vocal species, they sure are shy. I haven’t been able to get very close to the last few Belted Kingfishers to visit Sylvan Water. This one kept flying to the other side of the pond whenever people got anywhere near. Here he’s on the pond’s island.

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A mating pair… on October 8th. Seems mighty late. Same day, near by: a Carolina Mantis eating an adult male. (Stagmomanantis carolina, unlike most of the mantids found here, is a native species.) The live ones, however, outnumbered the dead 8-to-1 out there at Averne East. Last Monarch sighting: October 13th (no picture).

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