Necedah NWR Boghaunter Trail--A Meadow and the Meadow Hawk

Meadows and wetlands make a wonderful combination. There is something to see and enjoy everywhere you look. We were actually getting good views of Bald eagles, five of them (as if that's not special enough!), when I spotted this Northern Harrier gliding low over the marshy meadow. While she appears to be over water in the sketch, she was actually at the edge of a grassy meadow, focusing on prey. In the next instant, she stopped in mid-flight and hovered, one of the many aerial feats that make these hawks so much fun to watch.

I give Northern Harriers credit for pulling me deeper into bird watching and prompting the purchase of my first pair of binoculars more than ten years ago. Several Northern Harriers wintered over in the fields where I lived, giving me daily views of their incredible aerial hunts. In this instance, at Necedah NWR, there were two Northern Harriers in view while we watched.

Below, along the trail, you see the same yellow aster shown in my previous post, this one in a different stage of maturity.

Lacy asters and other flowers dotted the meadow...

mixed in with a variety of milkweed plants displaying their pods.

I will venture a guess that above is the Common Milkweed, and below, the orange Butterfly Weed. Though this is risky at best, since Necedah is home to other milkweed varieties, including the Wooly Milkweed. Read more about the rare meadow flowers found on this trail in Geoffrey Tarbox's Sept 23rd post in Operation Migration's field journal. (Scroll down and watch for the date and this title, "Watching the Canfield Site/Return of the Plant Man".) Next post: Necedah's Oak savannahs and Red-headed Woodpeckers (possibly interrupted by some surprising and fun yard birds back in Tennessee).

Linked to Bird Photography Weekly #57 at Birdfreak.com to celebrate the conservation of our world's birds