Green Heron, millpond

As a result of far too many Great Blue Herons missed, I have learned to approach the millpond dam and waterfall warily, my camera prefocused and ready. But poised or not, I was not expecting this diminutive wader in the duckweed green shallows. At first quick glance, I thought it might be a Least Bittern, a bird I've never seen in this locale, but when I started examining the bird through the telephoto, I realized that the visitor was a Green Heron. These pint-sized relatives of their much-larger Great Blue cousins are hardly common, so this was a great sighting. Because I was on high alert, I also was able to capture some not-half-bad images, both initially and soon thereafter, when I crept closer to "shoot" the bird as it spooked and flew. Then, it was down the dry waterfall to snare pictures of the odonates that continue to patrol the rapidly disappearing millpond stream: a pair of Fawn Darners, some kind of spreadwing damselfly, and, still, praise be, a cooperative Dragonhunter.