Phil Lanoue Photography

Great Blue Heron at Sunset

A Great Blue Heron in the marsh pond last night silhouetted by warm setting sunlight…

Every day we don’t see any spoonbills out in the marsh we wonder if they have finally left the area for the season. Last year they departed early and I never saw one spoonie past Sept. 1st. We have been very fortunate this summer that some were around fairly reliably all through Sept. and even Oct. But the question remained… would any stick around into November.

We were thrilled last night to find that question answered when first two, then a third spoonie showed up in the salt marsh during low tide! So we can officially say we had spoonbills into November.

Here are a few shots of them as they went about their routine much to the delight of all who saw them!

Meeting In The Marsh

Earlier this week we had a group meeting in the salt marsh during low tide. Despite there being four different species of birds in the group: great and snowy egrets, wood storks, and white ibis… everyone got along fine. Even when an additional overly excited snowy flew in to join the meeting, they all remained calm and focused on the day’s agenda which of course was feeding.

Can you count the total number of birds in this group? Remember, the arriving snowy added one more to the number. 🙂

Happy Halloween From Mr. A!

It was great to see our pal Mr. A in the swamp getting into the Halloween spirit with his scary costume! The only problem was… I wasn’t exactly sure what the costume was supposed to be. A floating weed bog?!? Well I didn’t know and I was not about to ask him either.

But considering the swamp is stuffed with moorhens, coots, and grebes right now… I’m guessing the Trick or Treat aspect may end up being more of a trick on the unsuspecting water fowl if Mr. A really wants to turn this Halloween into something especially scary. 😯

“It Wasn’t Me, It Was That Other Bird”

Yesterday we spotted this great blue heron standing in a tree doing what I have often seen described as a “flasher” pose. You can draw your own conclusions regarding how it got that name, but from most of the research I have done, this posture is likely part of the heron’s ability to thermo regulate it’s body temperature. The wing out position can allow for better air flow when the bird is hot, or collect heat (as it appears to be doing here) to warm itself up in the sun after a cool evening.

However… could I have possibly caught it in an embarrassing situation? Soon after it was done flashing, the great blue flew across the marsh then ducked down low behind some reeds in hopes of remaining out of sight. It almost worked too, until I managed to steal a momentary glimpse of him when he briefly poked his up for a quick look around. 🙂

Two For One

Yesterday morning this osprey got two fish on one dive into the water. One fish for each talon!

Where’s Mom?

We saw this tiny baby alligator in the swamp this morning all alone by itself, no mom in sight. The little tyke had a forlorn look on his face as if he was thinking… “Mom left me, so now what am I supposed to do?!?”

No Competition

Earlier this week the salt marsh was active with many species of wading birds feeding at low tide, including this spoonbill and great blue heron. While the spoonie was very busy moving his spatula shaped bill back and forth through the water in search of food, the heron plucked himself out a nice fish.

If there had been an egret or another blue heron next to him there might have been an issue over who got to eat that fish. But…in this case the spoonbill simply ignored the great blue and it’s catch and continued on hunting for tiny shrimp. Although I have seen spoonbills eat very small fish, they are no competition for a heron and a fish like this, so they can all get along just fine during their evening meal!