Day 43 Birding

ENT BIRDING
I planned to go to Sandhills NWR but I changed my mind and went to Lee County.  I wanted to see if the Eagles I have been keeping tabs on for four years rebuilt the nest since the tree it was in fell down...They didn't or if they did I sure never found it.  

There is this cemetery I enjoy going to cause it's by a lake and it's pretty birdy there.  There is a dirt shortcut road that I can take to cut a little bit off the trip to get to that cemetery...so I noticed a Northern Harrier flying over that road so I took the road he flew down the side for a while then darted down a tract of trees and disappeared...I had stopped to scan the trees thru my rolled down window with my binoculars and when I looked up to continue on I see this white truck coming right at me!! 

So I just sat there to see what the heck....and this man came so close to my van he nearly hit me!! He was basically trying to prevent me from moving forward at all...So I looked at him like..."really"? And he says 'What are you doing'? I dont know this man but so many people who own land with a road going thru think they own the road too!...If it's county maintained then it's open to the public...So I said "well if its any or your business Im looking for a hawk that just flew off that way..." So he says, "Well now I've heard it all." And then he does what all non birders do they try to tell me what they know about birds...he said "the ones you have to watch out for are those darters." I had no intention of making talk with this man so I pulled to the side then left...he was totally creepy. 

WHAT an ass.  I am so sick of rednecks who think they are in charge.  It's getting where you can't even do anything without somebody getting up in your business.  But in the end I did have a good day out birding.  The bird of the day was a Merlin.  I didn't get very good photos of him he was pretty far off the road, and even tho the sun was supposed to shine today it was basically overcast all day.  Not good light for photos.  Then later after checking for the Eagle nest I found a field with about 10,000 Blackbirds!! It was a mixed flock.  Some farmer had just dumped some manure on a couple of fields and the birds were after it. Take a look and this was only on one side of the road about as many again are on the other side of the road.  

I need to start using my tripod so I can get sharper images I can't hold the camera steady enough.