Phil Lanoue Photography

Who’s Fish Is It Anyway?!

Yesterday afternoon I saw this osprey flying across the salt with a small fish he had just plucked out of the water. Almost instantly the osprey was jumped by a bald eagle that had been sitting in a nearby tree waiting for exactly this situation to present itself. The osprey really wanted his fish, he caught it, he assumed he owned it. So the osprey did everything it could to escape the marauding eagle. It began flying evasive maneuvers that would put any modern jet fighter to shame, but still the eagle kept up with him.

At one point the osprey appeared to be successful in shaking off the attacker, but that eagle was determined. It did one tight swoop back around and finally succeeded in getting the osprey to drop it’s prize. After grabbing up it’s plundered fish, the eagle took it into a nearby tree where by the time I made my way over the fish was down the hatch and gone.

It seems to me that the eagle could easily catch it’s own fish with likely half the effort it takes to chase around an osprey. But such is the nature of the bald eagle who is often quite happy to let another bird do the work, plus I think the eagle truly enjoys the thrill of the chase!

“Here Comes My Friend!”

Yesterday afternoon there was one lone spoonbill fishing in the salt marsh during low tide. He was not alone the entire time, there were several white ibis, snowy and great egrets, and great blue herons around to play with, but no other spoonbills…

Then finally after about 2 hours another spoonbill showed up, gliding low over the oyster beds and landing near his pal. I thought the first spoonie would act little more excited to see his friend arrive, but I’m sure he was happy to see a familiar pink face! 🙂

Great Blue Heron at Sunset

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

November Spoonbills

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. 🙂