It Was A Nice Quiet Crowd Out There Until…
We had a big crowd of spoonbills and wood storks out this evening and at one point many of them ended up congregating in a near corner of the salt marsh.
Everyone was calm and quiet as the evening feeding was mostly concluded and they were all just standing around socializing and relaxing.
Until… something spooked them and the entire group decided all at once that they had to leave and it had to be right now!
Suddenly the whole bunch of them exploded in a flash of pink and white and they all took off out across the pond area heading for the trees. This capped off an amazing evening when we had 14 spoonbills (and Radar) all fishing in the salt marsh at the same time. It’s a new record!
Phil Lanoue Photography 
To quote Ogden Nash, ” first none will come, then a lot’ll”……beautiful!
Thanks very much Becky! Funny quote!
At the risk of sounding inarticulate, Oh Wow! Oh Wow!
Hey thanks and that’s what I said right after it happened! 🙂
I bet you did! Amazing scene visually, and I wonder what it sounded like? I have heard neither stork nor spoonie, myself.
Neither the spoonies or the wood storks are very vocal. About the most you will hear from spoonbills are some low grunts, Ibis are similar. The wood storks will clack their bills against each other when fighting and that sounds like someone smacking a couple of 2x4s together.
What you do hear however is the wings! When a group like this is close and leaves all at once the sound their wings makes is quite loud and impressive. Those big wings can displace a lot of air and you really hear it.
Oh yes, the sounds of large wings! Really unique, nothing like it. Thanks.
Plus if you are close enough you can feel it too! 🙂
Oh yes, isn’t that amazing, to feel that feathery breeze, for want of a better word?
Feathery breeze sounds right. 🙂
What a colorful bunch!
You gotta love a big pink bird and the only thing better is a bunch of pink birds! 🙂
The black and white birds made for great counterbalances. 😀
Thanks, that’s exactly what I thought as well.
Nice frames with some without and some with pink color ! Looks like a splash of pink ! Congrats , Phil !
utham
Thanks very much utham glad you liked these photos and it was amazing to see this group all leave at once!
nice shots.. did you see what startled them?
Thanks, I never did see anything and the first thing I did look for was a bald eagle flying overhead. Sometimes when one bird spots a large raptor circling above it will panic and fly off and this gets the whole group t do the same even if they don’t know why they are leaving. But I didn’t see an eagle and large wading birds like these do not usually care as much as birds like duck but you never know. Also wood storks will panic over the sound of even a far off helicopter. Don’t know what is but they don’t like hearing them.
they do have sensitive ears.. at first i thought there was an alligator lurking in there somewhere.
The wood storks especially can apparently hear very well. When I see a group of them jump and fly off in a panic the first thing I listen for is a helicopter. They seem to really dislike that sound and will almost always hear it before we can.
Funny you mention an alligator, there was one that was nearby but is was over by itself swimming around in deeper water. Plus the wood storks and even the spoonbills don’t get too concerned about the gators. They should, but don’t. 🙂
I’ll go with Oh Wow, too! 🙂
It was quite a sight and the sound of all those huge wings going all at once was amazing. They can really displace a lot of air and it’s much louder then you might think.
Those are some cool photos. Did the photographer happen to spook them on purpose in order to get a photogenic scene?
Thanks Jeff and no it wasn’t me that sent them off. I have a strict non-interference policy out there. I never try to influence a bird’s behavior, even when I hope one will fly so I can get the jump off and hopefully flight shots. I leave them on their own to decide for themselves what they want to do and when they want to do it. Everything that happens in my photos would have (presumably) happened whether I was there to see and photograph it or not.
One thing that could have panicked them though is a helicopter. Wood storks will often burst up and fly off at the sound of an approaching helicopter which they hear before we do. One may have been flying out over the beach that I never heard, but they did. An eagle circling overhead would be another possibility. That was actually the first thing I looked for but didn’t see one. Sometimes all it takes is for one bird to panic over something (or nothing) and that sets them all off.
I love the top image. Incredible shot!
Thanks very much, great to hear you liked seeing the spoonies and wood storks!
Love those colorful Spoonbills. These are really wonderful shots.
Thank you, I never get tired of watching and photographing these fun pink birds!
Fantastic shots, Phil. Enough birds there for a really big sushi party. 🙂
Oh we had a big crowd out there last night and they all looked full too. Fish and shrimp were jumping everywhere so the buffet was really hopping! 🙂
I can only imagine what this sounded like. I know just in our backyard when crows fly close you can hear the wings. This huge crowd had to sound awesome. I love, love love the black, white and pink in this series. 🙂
The wing sounds are quite amazing, those huge wings can displace a lot of air and you can feel it as well as hear it.
Amazing night out there!
What a sight to see!
It was quite amazing! Thanks for checking these out!
Oh ……..Wow!
It was fun to see this excited group Maggie!
I was here on this particular evening. The sound as they took off was amazing. It was a very quiet respectful crowd at that point and the birds gave the people a ‘jumpstart’. I love that you captured so beautifully something that I was privileged to have seen myself.
Well I greatly appreciate your very kind words and I’m happy you enjoyed these photos! It certainly was a special night that I will not soon forget.