First of all, thank you to Mary Ann Todd for the lead on the Little Blue Heron. I went over to Black Hill at around 5:00 this afternoon and walked right up to it. In fact it led to quite a "Black Hill Moment". Read on if you dare, or delete if you don't care..... Once I got to the Spinning Wheel trail, I pretty much ignored a number of birds; blowing right by Chickadees, Titmice, Gnatcatchers and Red-eyed Vireos, and only slowing down to inspect a Black-throated Blue Warbler and some goofy-lookin' thing that appeared to be a cross between a Purple Finch and a Veery. After all, I was on a mission! Upon nearing the mouth of Little Seneca Creek, I clambered down the trail that leads to the water's edge, looked out, and there it was sitting on a stump in the water. I'd never seen a Little Blue Heron before, so I watched for a good long time while it lazily preened its feathers. In the background I heard a Towhee urging me to "Drink [my] Tea", while a Wood Thrush sang in harmony. (Hey, it rhymes!) And a Carolina Wren tried to "modernize" the piece with cacophonous counterpoint a la Cage. (Too much, ya think?) Slowly a pair of Wood Ducks came into view, and climbed onto the log beside the Heron. "Not bad", I thought, "two Woodies and a Little Blue together." No sooner had that thought crossed my mind, than five Mallards swam into view, and two Canada Geese crash-landed behind them. So now I'm trying to absorb all 10 birds (and several turtles) in the same astounding field of vision; when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a GREAT Blue Heron, moseying slowly behind the Little Blue as if to say, "You call that a Heron? I'll show you a REAL Heron." I was practically slack-jawed with amazement! (OK, no practically about it, I was totally slack-jawed.) Suddenly I heard a sharp whistle above me. Tearing my eyes away from the tableau, I watched a pair of Osprey arrive and begin circling above my friends. After a few laps around the scene, they soared on upstream. Crossing them in mid-air was a loudly shrieking female Wood Duck, who splashed-down a little further on, and continued whistling shrilly. This spooked the Great Blue, but apparently intrigued the pair of Woodies, because they started swimming over towards her. When they got close, she took off and flew about 50 yards away. They followed, she ran, they followed, she ran, and they repeated the scenario several times. As the sun put in a brief appearance, my attention was again interrupted by the return of one of the Osprey, this time with a good size fish in hand...uh...talon. She(?) settled onto a dead limb, flushing a Red-headed Woodpecker who had been working there unnoticed. The Osprey remained for quite a while; frequently flappin' cause the fish was a-floppin'. At one point her mate flew near and she loudly whistled something like, "Honey, I've got dinner on the table," but her mate just flew on by as if he didn't hear. (Insert male-bashing comment here.) The Wood Ducks were making all kinds of ruckus, drawing my attention back to their sick little love triangle, when suddenly a Crow swooped up and knocked the Osprey right off its limb, making her drop the fish she had gripped for over 15 minutes and chasing her out of sight. As these two story lines wound down, I looked back for the Little Blue who by now had moved to shallower waters and was replaced by a pair of Solitary Sandpipers (thus disproving the name.) A pair of Kingbirds chased each other around the snags, while Tree and Barn Swallows competed with Chimney Swifts and Goldfinches for the air rights. A Kingfisher, a Flicker, a Red-belly and a Baltimore Oriole also stopped by to check out the scene before moving on. Suddenly I glimpsed a flash of white and discovered that the Red-headed Woodpecker had returned to its tree! At this point ominous clouds began to roll in and a few drops began to fall. The Towhee was still nagging at me and the Wood Thrush continued its serenade, but it was time to go home and I doubted Mother Nature could improve on what she had just displayed.. I looked at my watch and it was 5:45. I'd barely moved a muscle the entire time.... Happy Mother's Day! Roger Stone rogs@erols.com