Fisher kings

A break in the humidity and somewhat cooler temperatures today meant more activity at Howell's when I stopped by this evening. In fact, the first thing I noticed was that one of the dead trees across the pond looked a bit different than it normally does:



I didn't happen to catch it on the verge of taking off, by the way—it was in that pose when I first saw it, and held it for quite a few minutes. Eventually, though, it did take off for the other end of the pond:



The kingfishers were also pretty busy this evening, chattering away like crazy from whatever perch they'd chosen:



One coming out of the water after an unsuccessful attempt at a fish:



The bird on the left has a fish; the bird on the right most definitely wants it:



They did have a bit of a tussle (I couldn't tell which one, if either, ended up with the meal), but eventually let bygones be bygones and continued to hang out together a while longer:



This isn't a great photo, but I'm including it because I'm pretty sure it has a fish in its beak—perhaps taking it to its nest to feed its young?



As I walked along the road, hoping I might get lucky and have a kingfisher perch in one of the dead trees close by, a songbird caught my eye. I knew it wasn't quite the right shade to be a female oriole, but it was too big and not nearly bright yellow enough to be a goldfinch. So I took a bunch of pictures, and when I got back home was able to identify it as a yellow warbler—the first one I've ever seen:



Finally, another damselfly photo—taken from a respectful distance, of course: