Phil Lanoue Photography

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.

“Coming Through!”

“Out of the way boys, I’m coming through.”said the spoonbill last night as he jumped up out of the marsh pond and flew over this group of wood storks.

The Protection Detail

It almost looks as if these egrets were bodyguards forming a protective shield around the alligator. Did Mr. A tick off some other alligator so he requested protection from these egrets?! If that’s his plan I don’t think it is very well thought out. The egrets will very likely flee immediately at the first sign of any type of physical encounter, especially among alligators.

Or maybe Mr. A is actually the bodyguard protecting the egrets from some particularly grouchy great blue heron? Either way, they all seem to be on high alert, although in this case it makes much more sense for the egrets to be the ones to remain on alert!

The Jump Off

One of the most fun and interesting types of bird photos I enjoy taking are those of when a bird decides it’s time to leave and flies away. I refer to that exact moment as the ‘jump off’. I spend a lot of time observing and attempting to recognize certain aspects of a bird’s behavior, attitude and body posture, to predict when it’s likely to jump off, so I can hopefully be ready to capture this action. I blink or turn my head at that time and it’s over and I missed it.

This past weekend I was watching everyone’s favorite grumpy pink spoonbill when he started to have ‘the look’. I have seen this before and suspected he had enough of the crowd in the near corner of the marsh pond and was ready to head off on his own. Sure enough…he did jump off and I grabbed a few shots as he left. In the last photo, notice how just after he clears the edge of the pond around the reeds and enters open water, he flies by a group of egrets that appear mildly bemused by the sight of this odd pink bird gliding by.

Woody’s Big Breakfast

Friday morning I looked to my left just in time to get a piece of this wood stork flying in with a nice fish it had just plucked out of the marsh pond. Woody landed right in front of me and proceeded to parade around his catch while simultaneously wrestling with it.

At the same time I glanced behind me and noticed this juvenile spoonbill coming in for a landing next to another wood stork. You can also see a snowy egret and two tricolored herons in the background. But by the time I turned back around again Woody had already gulped down his fish. That was fast!