Why Is Everyone Flying South?!
Late this afternoon we had light grey overcast skies with a threat of possible thunder storms coming in. I was looking north over and across the salt marsh when I started to notice quite few birds, especially the egrets, that seemed to be flying south in a hurry.
Within 15 minutes I discovered why. The clouds came rolling in from the northwest and were moving in a southerly direction right toward us.
These last two shots are looking north across the salt marsh and were taken 3 minutes apart. Although the long, low shelf clouds appear quite ominous, those are only a part of an approaching storm system and are not in among themselves very dangerous. But they must look rather scary to much of the wildlife who seemed to want no part of whatever was coming next.
Phil Lanoue Photography 
These are great pictures, Phil! You have such a view across the marsh. I read somewhere that birds sense a difference in air currents that warn them of impending bad weather. Maybe that’s why they moved so fast!
That certainly could be. I know the wood storks hate helicopters for some reason and if we see a group of them suddenly take off in a panic we know why. They hear the helicopters coming before we do.
If you look at the first cloud photo in the lower left just below the clouds and above the tree line there are about a dozen birds flying away from the approaching storm.
Smart Birds, they know the weather before we do, in fact they know alot of things that are great and not so great in the air before any human beings, animals have that 6th sense….thanks for your great pictures, they always bring me up seeing how beautiful nature still is…even if is scary at times.
You are so right! Check out my comment to Maggie above. If we see 100 wood storks suddenly jump up and fly in a high panicked circle we know a helicopter is approaching.
The beauty of nature keeps me going back there!
Fantastic!
Hey thanks very much for looking and commenting I appreciate it!
I love stormy weather and clouds…especially over green marsh grasses!! Fall is in the offing and I guess the birds know it!!
I was surprised that quite a few alligators were out yesterday too. Although we are currently in a summer heat, tropical weather pattern. Today is absolutely brutal.
Thanks much for checking out these photos!
If I saw that storm front heading my way, I’d head south too! Overwhelmed with Canada’s today. Seems they all came in overnight.
I’ve been chasing those Canada geese from our back yard feeder areas for weeks now. 🙂
What a great under-bird view of that egret! Those skies do look ominous…..
We get a lot of these crowds this time of year when we enter the more tropical weather pattern.
I think they knew what was coming. What a view, and the storm sky is lovely, as well as the egret being all stretched out to the toes!
He really is stretched out and he is in a hurry. Funny thing is not a whole became of the storm. Well at least at the beach anyway. 🙂