Leaving So Soon?!
Last night was cloudy and overcast and just when it was starting to get dark our cranky pink friend arrived and started to feed. There also happened to be an egret in the same area and they got along just fine for a while until the egret apparently had enough and decided he needed to immediately leave the area. The spoonbill seemed a bit shocked that anyone wouldn’t want to hang around with him for the evening…especially since he’d been working on his social skills and was finally learning to coexist well with other birds! And even worse…poor spoonie seemed lonely and forlorn over having been abandoned.
Phil Lanoue Photography 
Fantastiche!!!
Ciao, Pat
Sono felice che ti piace queste foto Pat.
Love following the story; again, fantastic photos.
I appreciate that Charlie, thanks!
Spoonie, “just when ya think you know someone….”
This guy is more then ‘a little different’ Becky. 🙂
I thought the spoonbills is snapping after the legs of the heron! 😉 The poor guy … Now he had to go alone in the evening.
He did look lonely but not sure if he likes it that way. 🙂
Alone again, naturally!! ( I really need a musical note icon)
That’s a great idea Judy! ♫ Thanks for looking.
How did you do that!!
Do you have a full size keyboard with numbers on the right side? If so, hit the Num Lock button, then press and hold the Alt key on the left while typing 14. Let up on the Alt key and the music symbol should display. 🙂
♫Hallelujah♫ Thanks for that handy tip!!
Phil,
I am a novice birder at huntington beach state park and I view your web site regularly. Sat. morning I was on the causeway and saw 7 spoonbills hanging with the wood storks on the far side of the pond. I personally have never seen that many spoonbills together at huntington and I was thrilled. Maybe they were just passing through, but I swear to you there were seven.
Thanks for your reply Linda, we have been seeing 6 or 7 for the past few weeks. Not always together and we saw 11 last month. Nice to have them sticking around.
Couldn’t happen to a better guy! 😉
He seems to be turning over a new leaf and maybe will; start to get along with other birds better. Although we have seen him for the past two evenings and he was alone. Again.
Ah but the Spoonie still had you!
Once again he shows up and I feel compelled to take yet more pictures of him. I probably have a thousand by now, and when I say a thousand I more likely mean three thousand.
funny
I’m heading out for the marsh shortly. What’s your bet on number of photos taken if I see Mr. You Know Who?
(last night’s total was a measly 120)
I’ll go with an uneven 275. Of course now that you know my guess it’s pretty easy to make me wrong!
Well I did see him tonight but I missed his fly in cause I was off in the mid marsh looking for his friends so no photos there. Then I got distracted by some glossy ibis that flew in, and Mr. Cranky did not stay long so I only ended up with 62. He flew off away from which would have been butt shots so I didn’t even bother to take those.
When you’re a wildlife photographer, distracted is good.
Yeah and the glossys are pretty cool. Might post ’em tomorrow.
Some can be seen here: https://phillanoue.com/glossy-ibis-photos/
Very cool
Well that’s a ‘fair weather friend’ for you. Mr Cranky looks so forlorn in that last pic. You almost had me in tears. 😦
It just occurred to me that your wonderful pics of Mr A and all the beautiful birds in your salt marsh, together with your entertaining narrative, would make fabulous children’s books.
It is so very sad for the poor boy isn’t it Sylvia? 😦 🙂
That thing about the children’s books is what they said at the end of the TV broadcast when they showed my bald eagle/great blue heron series on the TV news.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/pal531/media/Eagel%20Heron%20Fish/MVI_9463.mp4.html
I enjoyed the clip. Phil, and they do say that great minds think alike. The photos and stories would be so educational, and I’m sure you can always find a moral to every story too. 🙂
Thank you for checking that out Sylvia, the video quality was rather bad because I just took it off the TV screen.
I’ll have to keep the whole book deal in mind, who knows… 🙂
Aah, poor Spoonie. The elegance of the Egret in the first photo is incredible.
Poor spoonie is right! But I somehow think he will prevail in the end. 🙂
A lovely serie. Excellent photowork!
Thanks very much Hans, so glad you enjoyed these!
Dare I say this – is old crankypants softening a little, at last?
Maggie I think that is very possible. I saw him getting along just fine with some ibis last night and he even (well despite one minor tail biting incident) got along with other spoonbills last week. 😀
Excellent nature Photography.
Thank you for looking and commenting Jan.
Lovely photos. Poor spoonie – I kind of feel sorry for him…
He will recover quite nicely I’m sure Deb. In fact I saw him last night and he looked quite proud of himself. 🙂
Mr. Cranky kind of getting a taste of his own rude medicine…although I do feel sorry for him. Dammit Phil! Just when I thought I wouldn’t like that bird just because he’s pink with a ‘tude, I’m feeling badly for him. All because of your fantastic photography. Thanks.
He’s still got some of that ‘tude working, he was involved in a minor tail biting incident prior to me getting these shots.
Thanks, I’m happy you liked these pics of our goofy pink friend.