Phil Lanoue Photography

Morning Flights

Just a few flights from this morning at the marsh pond. A juvenile spoonbill took flight across the water where earlier this osprey plucked out a fish. A great egret also flying low to the water and a bald eagle soaring high above. Lucky for the osprey that he caught his fish prior to the arrival of the eagle because that eagle would more than likely have jumped the osprey to take away it’s fish.

And of course I had to include a shot of our favorite dysfunctional spoonbill Mr. Cranky, who other then one minor tail biting incident managed to mostly behave himself this morning!

Unintended Consequences…

Earlier this week I was watching this alligator as it slowly floated around in the marsh pond. I could immediately tell something along the edge of the pond caught his attention as he started going into a stealthy stalking mode. I figured he likely spotted a crab or big fish and was headed over to see if he could snag it. There was some sort of pink colored debris there in the reeds that I had previously noticed, but I didn’t think the gator was interested in that. Well it turns out that was precisely what caught the alligator’s attention and once he grabbed it and lifted it up, I recognized it as a pink rubber flip flop sandal.

At this point I assumed he would bite down on the shoe, realize it was inedible, and spit it back out. But to my surprise he proceeded to carry the flip flop out from the reeds and back into the pond…however I was still waiting for him to discard rubber shoe. What happened next to…my horror…was that the alligator chewed down on the pink sandal a few more times before finally gulping it down whole!

This can not be good I’m thinking. I know that alligators will pick up and sometimes eat all sorts of things but I’m not sure if it can successfully break down and pass a rubber shoe, or if it will clog up the alligator’s digestive system. After swallowing the flip flop the alligator floated over near to my location and had a bit of a confused look on his face as if he was trying to decide if perhaps eating that shoe may not have been a wise decision. I’ve been keeping my eye out for him in the past couple of days and will continue to do so.

So these are the unintended consequences of leaving things behind…particularly in an area where wildlife is present in significant numbers. Someone loses an item such as this then leaves and thinks nothing of it. Later an animal finds it and the seemingly innocent act of dropping a rubber shoe could end up causing injury or possible even death to that animal. Plastic beverage bottles are another concern. We routinely pick up such discarded trash carelessly left behind by those that are there to admire nature and it’s creatures. It is our hope that people will stop and think about how one small casually discarded item could potentially affect an animal even such as a large alligator.

Sunset At The Marsh Pond

As we were leaving the marsh pond area tonight, just at sunset, I noticed this great blue heron being silhouetted by the warm setting sunlight. Off a bit in the background a young alligator was also finishing up his day with one more glide across the pond.

Afternoon Bath

Yesterday afternoon we had a group of four young spoonbills all relaxing together in the marsh pond. One of them decided it was bath time so he got up and started splashing around in the water until sufficiently clean…then walked round for a bit drying off his wings. He looked quite spiffy to me, I hope his friends were impressed because I sure was!

Morning And Evening At The Marsh

Yesterday morning in the salt marsh started off with a typical Mr. Grumpy attention grab where he shows off all his wonderfulness by prancing around holding up his bright pink wings for everyone to ogle. The real surprise of the morning however was how he managed to get along with everyone out there including a young spoonbill! The little snowy egret seemed shocked at the well mannered display while the wood storks remained stoic as usual.

Later in the evening Big Bubba made an appearance in the marsh pond and he looked very impressive as he glided in my direction. A bit later I saw a group of juvenile spoonbills feeding over on the other side of the pond and went over to watch them for a while. At that point an osprey made a few circle loops over the pond but apparently he didn’t spot anything that looked good so he quickly continued on his way. By this time the sun began to set and our group of young spoonbills decided that it was nap time so they tucked their bills back behind their wings and dozed quietly as the evening sun said goodbye to us all.

The Superhero Of The Marsh

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… well… it is actually a bird, but no ordinary bird, it’s our hero Mr. Grumpy! Yes indeed everyone’s favorite cranky spoonbill was out again this morning flying across the marsh pond, then out into the salt marsh, then back to the pond. He was everywhere, performing the impossible at each location! At one point he even stopped for a nap. Wow! This guy can do it all!

“Hey! Look What I Caught!”

This morning a great egret plucked itself a nice fish out of the salt marsh and proceeded to walk right over to me to show off his catch!

I Did Not See THAT Coming!

Yesterday evening in the salt marsh we had an assortment of the usual suspects…spoonbills (including Mr. Grumpy) snowy egrets, wood storks, and white ibis, etc. Everybody seemed to be happily feeding and enjoying the evening, and even Mr. Cranky was behaving.

Suddenly these two white ibis broke out into a huge ruckus! We aren’t sure what the disagreement was about, but what was quite surprising was that we rarely see white ibis fight. They are generally rather docile birds and tend to get along well with everyone including each other. But this pair clearly had issues, and as best as we could tell, the one on the right was the primary aggressor as he chased the other ibis back into the reeds to conclude the battle.