Phil Lanoue Photography

Flying Fish

Our good buddy Mr. A was having himself a fun time in the salt marsh last night. He was sloshing around in a land locked pool of water that was created by the low tide. A lot of fish were trapped in there and Mr. A knew it. Here he was banging his nose against the edge of the pool after herding a group of fish into a corner. The panicked fish were jumping all over in an attempt to escape the hungry alligator. A few lucky fish managed to survive and lived to tell the tale and swim another day!

Evening Flight

It was quite active in the salt marsh this evening…we had Mr. A in a feeding frenzy scooping up mouthfuls of fish with some wood storks happily picking up the panicked strays, plus some egret and ibis altercations. Photos on all that action will be upcoming.

Here is a great blue heron flight across the marsh. This bird was beating a hasty retreat after being jumped by another GBH that wanted him out of the area.

Afternoon Fishing

This afternoon we were watching this tricolored heron patiently fishing in the salt marsh. The little tri was really concentrating on catching a fish and I saw him strike at the water several times with no luck. The tide was coming in quickly now and the heron knew it had to act quickly or the water would get too high for a small wader such as him and he would be forced to move on.

Finally he hit the jackpot! On the last strike I saw him make, he came up with a good size fish, bigger then the tiny minnows it usually catches. So on this afternoon the patience and diligence of the tricolored paid off and he got himself a nice meal!

Still Learning

It was grey, overcast and kind of a quiet morning over at the salt marsh today. We saw a pair of adult bald eagles but they stayed on the far back edge, while an immature eagle was busy very high up shadowing an osprey. The osprey didn’t have a fish, the young eagle was likely just practicing being an annoyance to the osprey. Many wood storks were out flying in all directions along with some ibis and snowy egrets.

We did however see this juvenile night heron busy in the mud flats at low tide snatching up some tiny crabs which were skittering about the area. Crabs are among the favorite food of night herons but this youngster has to start somewhere and soon it will be going after the larger crabs as it ages and gains more experience.

The New Improved Mr. Cranky?!?

Out favorite pink grump was all over the marsh this weekend, flying about and frequently stopping to feed. But this time I noticed a significant difference in his behavior and attitude, he seemed to be…well, less cranky.

He got along fine with an egret, and he got along fine with a great blue heron, both of which I thought were very good signs. Plus he didn’t seem to get even the least bit upset when he was feeding with his young friend and a wood stork and they all got photo bombed by a snowy egret. Yes indeed, he was getting along just great with everybody, and really appeared quite pleased to have his little friend by his side there in the salt marsh.

Ok though… in the spirit of full disclosure I must point out that our previously grumpy spoonbill did backslide into grumpiness just a bit at one point. There was this minor tail biting incident which I believe he felt bad about…because later I saw him walk back out into the reeds where he gave himself a brief time out. That did the trick because he and the juvie spoonie were quickly right back to being friendly marsh mates once again!

And A Good Morning To You Sir

Early this morning my good pal Mr. A glided over to greet me at the edge of the marsh pond…he seemed to be in a good mood. 🙂

Disagreement In Mid Air

Yesterday morning I saw these two great blue herons clearly having some issues with each other. Probably a territorial matter, but they have been known to fuss and chase for no apparent reason other then they can.

At first the more aggressive of the two seemed to have the other heron on the run, but that bird was not to be intimidated as it suddenly swooped back up and engaged in the mid air standoff as seen in the last photo.

Hostilities ended as quickly as they began, and both herons flew off in separate directions and eventually managed to find their own area of the marsh to continue on with their morning.

Morning Eagle

This morning we were out at the salt marsh watching Mr. Cranky along with another spoonbill and a good assortment of other birds all of which Mr. C seemed to get along fine with. I’ll post some photos of that over the weekend…

I also saw a juvenile and an adult bald eagle but they were both rather far out in the marsh. However, at one point, we glanced over at a pine tree at the edge of the marsh and saw this adult eagle sitting there with a front row seat to all the action. We figure the eagle must have snuck in through the back door since none of us saw him arrive.

When the eagle first got there several mockingbirds were buzzing around his head apparently annoyed at the his presence. The eagle seemed to be unimpressed by the mockingbirds fussing and mostly just ignored them. I set up on the eagle hoping to get the jump off from the tree and after a bit of squawking it finally took off and headed back out over the salt marsh to continue on with his day.