The last piece I posted yesterday 
was on the ‘raptor mood’—
that sense for when a raptor might be approaching.

When I arrive at the lake today, there is little time
to sense anything—
straight away a couple of janjarak
black-winged stilts are flying south, 
low over the water.
Then a group of yet
Pacific black ducks go 
the same way,
A flock of pigeons.
And then I notice the manatj white
corellas going up a level
in the fig trees.

And then I see him,
all wingspan wide and orange—
a swamp harrier coming in low from the north.
The coots and hens pause and shriek a little.
The cormorants 
don’t move from their dead-log perches…
And then he swings back to the north,
no crows or magpies in sight.

I go past the southern end,
past a wayan white-faced heron,
past the marangana wood ducks and
yet, past the two janjarak, and coots
and hens.

At the gazebo, two of the three adult swans are 
out in the water. There are some swallows,
maybe a pink ear or two.
The white ibis are squabbling in the melaleuca bushes
to the east.

Then the harrier is there again, 
flying over the north-east corner.
One of the swans has his head in the water,
then up, then down again, then up
as the harrier flies over—apparently
unconcerned by the raptor.

I wait a while.
And consider the way the cormorants
and the swans didn’t seem troubled.

And then the same swan starts a fast 
wingflap run over the surface of the water
towards me, away from the raptor zone,
towards his solitary spot.
And then the other swan is doing the same
back to his mate and cygnet 
to the west.
The coots are clucking.
The cormorants are moving now too.
Maybe they all heard something 
i didn’t
from behind the rushes
to the north.

The raptor is out again now,
and visible. 
But now the crows are on his tail,
swooping and chasing him down into some 
bushes by the lake’s edge—
amazing how some predators
don’t like the presence of other
predators.

I’m observing all this
while pondering
what Western Australia needs.