Phil Lanoue Photography

“What?! It’s You Again?!?”

One day last week I saw this bald eagle come gliding in toward me from out across the salt marsh. He took a glance down toward me and I’m not going to say he looked annoyed to be seeing me yet again down there pointing something up at him but…I was happy when he just continued on his way without giving me so much as a second look, or likely a second thought.

Just Another Beautiful Day In The Swamp

It started off being yet another unseasonably warm day so I thought there may be some alligators out in the swamp taking advantage of our current Spring like temps. I saw a few gliding along out in the clear water but when I checked in close I spotted this little guy making his way through the duckweed like he was on a mission.

I was a bit surprised to see one of our late babies still out and active at this time of year and I was interested to learn where he was going. Well it turned out he was headed over to his favorite log, (well for him it’s more of a stick) to relax and enjoy a pleasant day in the swamp!

Of Course…They Don’t Always Miss!

Lately I have been posting photos of ospreys either diving down into the water and missing a fish, or…catching a fish and then getting jumped by an eagle who steals it. So I thought it would be a good idea to do the intrepid osprey a little justice and show one from earlier this week who not only caught a fish, but caught two! And got to keep them both!

Great job done by the skilled hunter on this mission!

Nice Splash

An osprey fishing in the marsh pond makes a huge splash but comes up empty on this attempt. He did make a really nice splash though. 🙂

Touch And Go Landing

Great Blue Heron coming in for a tip toe landing in the marsh pond a few days ago…

Just Because You Miss Doesn’t Mean You Quit

A few days ago I saw this osprey hit the water in the marsh pond but when it came up I saw it missed the fish on this attempt. But that osprey was not to be deterred, it did one tight loop around and was quickly right back at it hovering above the water searching for the next opportunity.

Anhinga? No. Turkey Vulture

This past weekend I was surprised to see a turkey vulture acting more then a little bit odd. I’m not at all sure what this one was up to, but it definitely was behaving in a strange manner.

Vultures don’t normally fly low over the water. Vultures don’t normally land on a stump in the salt marsh. Vultures don’t normally hold their wings out Anhinga style.

The Anhinga is a water bird that needs to dry off it’s wings after it is done swimming around under water after fish. The Vulture does not go after fish or go into the water. It’s possible this Vulture was simply trying to warm itself up in the sun, but I don’t ever remember seeing one do this before.

I have also included a photo of mine from the files showing the classic Anhinga ‘wing drying’ pose for reference.

The White Pelican Convention

This morning we were very surprised to see that the American White Pelican Convention was holding it’s December 1st. meeting in the marsh pond. There were 60-70 white pelicans all over the pond, sometimes clumped in groups, other times more spread out. It is uncommon for us to see even a few white pelicans but a group this size is a rare event.

Along with the pelicans there were groups of cormorants and various species of ducks, all of which is fairly normal. Then at one point a juvenile brown pelican showed up and seemed more then a little surprised to see so many birds that were kind of like him, but not exactly the same. 🙂 I also saw a bald eagle perched in a tall tree at the back edge of the pond and he never moved a bit. Perhaps he was trying to figure out just what these very large and very odd looking birds were.

We don’t know how long the convention will be in town but I do plan to check over there tomorrow in hopes they are planning an extended stay.