What Willet Do?

     The heat picked up out of nowhere and the bird level is stagnant. Birds are (generally) where they need to be to do what they need to do,  nest and rear their young. So I decided to go the the salt marsh at Plumb Beach and see what is happening down there. I got new walking sandals and needed a good excuse to wade in water. I also still needed a little blue heron, so off I went!

This boat-tailed grackle is not singing. It is hot and trying to cool off. Birds cant sweat, so like dogs, they pant and open mouth breathe.
But boat-tailed grackles do make some pretty trippy sounds!

I like these birds a lot, the males are glossy and purple in the sun, female are a lovely warm rust to cinnamon brown. And they have beautiful long tails. 

Then, I noticed things gathering and looking at me...

Another, from the grasses...
Willets.
What will they do?
Are they planning something?!
I usually don't think much of willets aside from being loud and flighty.

As that thaught crossed my mind, in flew a bird to me. It landed a conservative distance away and just, if a willet could "chip," it made loud chips at me.

Look at those perfect shore bird feet! Partially webbed for perfectly plodding through a muddy habitat.

Willet ended up walking really close to me... I noticed its partner in crime also noisy, but walking away. A distraction? I put it all together and thought I am probably in a space where they do not want me and are likely nesting. So I walked away. Only to have a willet dive bomb me, that was a first!
Who knew a willet would do that! I didn't, with their usually very timid nature, but there was one flying at me, looking me dead in the eyes with much anger in its own.
I left them be.

And then I found the bird I really wanted to see, a little blue heron!
I enjoyed a nice look before a red-winged blackbird dive bombed it and chased it away.

And here is a bearded robber fly. I only see them near the salt marshes. The look terrifying, but are only terrifying if you are another insect that they want to eat.