Island View Beach was not all bees and high fashion, I also got some cool shots of some awesome predators. First up is this cool robber fly! I think it is in the subfamily Stenopogoninae, but I am by no means an expert.
![IMG_0262](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0262.jpg)
Here is how I found it, shot with the 300.
![IMG_0267](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0267.jpg)
Dewy on the perch, the sunlight catches its hairs and bristles nicely.
![IMG_0274](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0274.jpg)
With some coaxing, I got it to perch on top of the flower.
![IMG_0282](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0282.jpg)
Robbers are some of my favourite flies, possibly because of how raptorial they are.
![IMG_0294](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0294.jpg)
It takes them some time to warm up for flight, so they are great subjects for a photographer.
![IMG_0589](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0589.jpg)
I also saw a couple of juvenile Cooper’s hawks haunting the seaside vegetation. They hunt from perches like robbers, but have a more protracted chase when they spot prey.
![IMG_0612](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0612.jpg)
As endotherms, these hawks are more difficult to approach!
![IMG_0113](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0113.jpg)
The tidal shallows at dawn is a great place to find Great Blue Herons, looking marvelous as silhouettes.
![IMG_0164](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0164.jpg)
Here is what happens when an Ammophila chooses the wrong perch to sleep.
![IMG_0702](http://ibycter.mango.mikeboers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/img_0702.jpg)
And this is what can happen if a lacewing hits a black widow web!