Phil Lanoue Photography

Nice View From Up There

Earlier this week everyone’s favorite cranky spoonbill was hanging around in the salt marsh by himself but something seemed different about him. He had a kind of playful attitude rather then his former grumpy demeanor which wasn’t making him any friends. Then he did something unexpected…he turned and looked toward an old tree stump that is always sticking out there at low tide and did sort of a quick hop flight and landed on the stump.

He stood around on the stump for a few minutes surveying his marsh kingdom then concluded all was well and it was now time to leave. He took flight across the marsh then did a wide circle in the opposite direction and flew against the trees at the far back edge heading south to continue on with his day.

Blue Crab Special

Yesterday afternoon we were watching a few white ibis fishing in the salt marsh (along with our resident grumpy spoonbill, but more on that later) and were very surprised to see this ibis snag a large blue crab. White ibis generally feed on small fish, eels and various marine crustaceans such as little crabs.

This ibis was not at all intimidated by the size of it’s catch, it proceeded to systematically dismantle the crab by snapping off it’s legs one by one. Once the legs are gone the ibis will shake and crunch the remaining portion of the unfortunate crab, and then dine on the yummy insides. After reducing the large crab to a compact piece, the ibis decided to walk over to a more secluded area of the marsh as his friends had begun to pay too much attention to the action!

The Lazy Gator

Earlier this week a young alligator was floating around in the salt marsh and I was surprised to see him not wildly sloshing after the fish like they normally do. This one just seemed to be taking it easy, gliding in and around the dried reeds and enjoying a relaxing swim. He did make a few minor grabs at some fish and swallowed a bunch at one point but I knew what he was doing, he was employing the lazy gator method of fishing. He would lay there with the bottom portion of his mouth open under the water and if some poor unfortunate fish happened to swim in well… that was fine, but this boy was not going to put a lot of effort into it at all.

Bath Time For Spoonie

Yesterday afternoon we saw this spoonbill in the marsh pond who decided it was the perfect time to take a nice bath. It splashed around in the water for a while then proceeded to dry off it’s wings and preen it’s feathers. I think he cleaned up quite nicely! 🙂

“What Is That Thing?!?”

This afternoon I was watching an alligator hunting in a small pool of water formed by low tide in the salt marsh. At one point an egret showed up and it seemed to be trying to figure out exactly what this big thing was lying there in the water. I was a bit surprised by the egret’s behavior as I expect it has seen gators many times but it’s possible this one is a new arrival to the marsh and has no prior alligator experience.

About two hours later a couple of spoonbills also arrived at the salt marsh. This one young spoonbill was particularly fascinated with the alligator, it kept walking along next to the gator, and was checking it out from different angles. I’m willing to bet this spoonie never has seen an alligator before and really was trying to determine what the heck it was.

In any case the alligator ignored both birds and just went about it’s business hunting for a lunch of fish and crabs.

“Nice Tail”

Well at least that’s what I told this rather large alligator that was slogging through the mud among the oyster beds in the salt marsh recently. He really looked like he meant business, so what else would I tell him?!? 🙂

Wood Storks Do Not Like Helicopters!

Yesterday evening there was a large group of wood storks sitting in pine trees along the edge of the salt marsh. Looking north along the coast I could see two big helicopters approaching from off in the distance and I knew what that meant. The wood storks heard the helicopters way before I did and as is the usual case, they flew off in a total panic as the choppers got closer. Wood Storks are absolutely terrified of helicopters and will always immediately leave as a group at the first sign of one flying into their area. Most of the other birds including the spoonbills, do not seem to care at all and basically ignore all close flying aircraft.

I knew there was one young spoonbill in among the wood storks back in the trees and it took off with the storks probably confused about why we all had to suddenly leave in a huge panic. But the spoonbill figured there must be a good reason so it went along with the crowd. I keyed in on the spoonie as it flew off along with the storks and followed the youngster as it flew across the pines.

He’s Still Here!

Well at the risk of boring everyone with yet another series of our favorite solitary spoonbill, I felt compelled to post these photos today. We hadn’t seen Mr. Grumpy in a couple of days and I began to get concerned that perhaps he had left us to spread joy and cheer at a different marsh. So last night we went out hoping to see our cranky friend but what we initially saw instead was a few juvenile spoonbills in the salt marsh. However, when we saw one spoonie and one spoonie only, fly into the pond we suspected it could be our resident loner and sure enough it was!

Once we got into a location with a good view of him that’s when the fun started. It’s possible he missed us too because he began to put on a show unlike anything I had ever seen. He kept raising up his wings and prancing around in all directions making sure everyone had a great look at his bright pink plumage. He walked forward, then turned and walked back. He walked to the right, then turned and walked to the left, all the while in full display mood. What made the entire event more remarkable was that it all happened as the sun was setting which at times cast a warm red glow on the bird making him even brighter then usual. Toward the end he looked back at me as if to say…”are you getting this?” I would have been happy to pay admission to this show!