Spoonbill Has A Surprise Guest Drop In During Dinner
So last night the spoonie was still in the area and happily feeding in the salt marsh at low tide.
The next thing you know…up pops Mister You Know Who which, as you might imagine, completely spoils the fishing.
The spoonbill walked back and forth for a bit, stopping occasionally to asses the situation. He was also making these odd grunting sounds which we took to mean he was not tremendously pleased with having his dinner interrupted.
The alligator meanwhile was totally unimpressed with the pink bird’s vocal displeasure and simply floated along in his standard casual manner ignoring spoonie the entire time.
Phil Lanoue Photography 
Lovely reflections. The spoonbill certainly is keeping an eye on the gator.
Thanks and yes that spoonie remains alert!
So glad to see your Spoonies again!!
We were quite happy this one showed up but by Sunday he seems to be gone already. Oh well… maybe more will arrive.
Wow, so close. Why wouldn’t the spoony move away? Beautiful shots of them though.
It was hysterical out there! The spoonbill was clearly upset at the alligator’s presence but he wouldn’t leave.
We saw an egret and blue heron do the same thing, complain loudly but not leave. They can be funny at times.
It never ceases to amaze me how the birds don’t fly off at the approach of Mr A. While up here on the other coast, they take to the sky if I so much as slow the car down.
The funny thing is that they have whole big marsh area they can move to but instead stand around with the alligator then complain loudly that the alligator is there. Although at times the gator will actually attract birds that come because the gator gets the fish all stirred up which makes them easy pickings.
Wow great shots, seems as if Mr. Alligator is changing courses and moving towards him, I hope he took off after that!!!! Great shots, I hope Mr. Spoony and him are friends or he took off ……
Normally in a case like this the alligator will usually just ignore the birds and go after fish and crabs and the birds go after the fish that are in a huge panic because the alligator is chasing them, so it works out for everybody. But this gator seemed juuuuust a little too interested in the birds this time. But everybody ended up getting along OK and the spoonbill flew over to join a bunch of wood storks later.
When you’re an alligator, not much is going to bother you!
Uninvited guests can be problematic… You have some amazing creatures to ‘play’ with out there.
Just beautiful!