Morning Spoonbill

We were pleased to see one lone roseate spoonbill in the marsh pond early this morning. He was picking around with a few of his egret and heron friends but surprisingly no wood storks or ibis which are the usual spoonbill associates. Once I saw him lift his head, open his yap, and give me that look, I suspected it was time to leave and sure enough, spoonie took off!

He flew over to the salt marsh where we tracked him down, then back across to a far corner of the marsh pond where once again we tracked him down. Photos of our pink friend in those locations will be subjects of upcoming posts. Including one particularly unfriendly encounter with a tricolored heron. 🙂 

Spoonbill Takeoff

Spoonbill Takeoff

Spoonbill Takeoff

Spoonbill Takeoff

Spoonbill Morning Flight

65 thoughts on “Morning Spoonbill”

  5. I can’t think of too many bird images that make me smile more than a spoonie with it’s bill open like in number 2. That said, number one is some fine Spoonbill cheesecake…what a cutie.

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    • Paula I understand completely. Would you believe it is the spoonbills that got me hooked on bird and wildlife photography?! We had a group of 11 show up in 2009 and we had never seen them before. My first impression was, I have to get good photos of these guys! It all went downhill from there. 😀

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      • Yes, I can understand that, but you got hooked :D. Recently on my holiday to Italy I took a pic of an eagle owl and a hawk in cage and I was thrilled. now, I am searching all zoos and animal shelters in my country 😀

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  13. The colour of him is amazing. It is so vivid – did you do much fiddling, I mean post-processing? The reflections are brilliant, and a lovely final shot with him perfectly poised in flight. Lovely series Phil.

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    • They really are fun and amazing birds to see and photograph, and they will literally stop traffic if one or more of them is feeding along the causeway where vehicle traffic goes by. The alligators, especially the big ones, will have similar effect. People just lose their marbles, they jump out of their cars leaving doors flung open, and practically abandon the vehicle to see them.
      I didn’t monkey around much at all with these, you don’t have to with these guys, just very minor tweaks in PP. I actually only just shoot jpegs and do very little post in general on everything I shoot. 🙂

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  23. A truly beautiful animal, graceful and elegant. I can not imagine that a Spoonbill is ever angry with somebody. Great photos, dear Phil, again and again! ▲

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  29. In the first photograph, the dark parts of the image worked well to make the spoonbill stand out all the more. (That’s true for most of the other pictures, too, but the first one caught my attention first.) Being able to record one flying, as in the last image, is a coup.

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