Phil Lanoue Photography

White Pelicans

The past two days we have been thrilled with a large group of American White Pelicans that decided to make a stopover in the marsh pond. We counted 28 of these amazing large birds and the last time we saw even one was December 2012.

In the first group photo you can see our pal Mr. A gliding by near the two wood storks on the right. In the last group photo, even though they are quite far off, you should be able to make out a roseate spoonbill coming in for a landing in among a group of these pelicans. We hope they plan to stick around but it’s quite possible our marsh is just a temporary rest stop on their way to the next location…

White Pelicans

Who Likes A Rainy Day?

Well it turns out that our pal Mr. A loves a rainy day! The falling rain water we got this afternoon will freshen up his pond and make swimming around so much more pleasant. You can even tell by these photos… In the first two when he was coming over to greet me, he looks a little grumpy. But then 10 minutes later when it started to rain you can see how happy he looks gliding along as the rain drops fall around him! 🙂

Walking The Runway

Last night this roseate spoonbill put on a heck of a show in the salt marsh at low tide which was lit by warm setting sunlight. It suddenly decided to walk, well actually prance, out of a shallow stream of water and out toward me near the oyster beds.

The spoonie looked and acted like a fashion model doing a photo shoot on a runway, and what an extravagant display it was! As soon as I took this last photo, the show was over and the spoonbill walked right back into the water and continued feeding. I have never seen anything quite like this before!

Well…They Almost Got Along…

We had a pretty good crowd in the salt marsh last night including two spoonbills and several snowy egrets along with a few ibis. At one point a snowy was standing there watching as a spoonbill came closer to his fishing spot. I thought things might go OK until spoonie went over and gave snowball a little shove. I expected a full scale battle to begin but quickly they both found something that interested them and prevented (at least temporarily) any altercations from escalating. But when spoonie turned back and began to continue to encroach on the snowy’s area, that was all it took as snowball decided he had enough and left for greener pastures, or less crowded water.

About an hour later spoonie and a different snowy really went at it and I do have photos of that exchange which will be a post for another day. 🙂

Late Night Fishing

Last week, very late in the evening, I found our old pal Mr. Alligator all by himself fishing in the salt marsh. None of his little bird friends were around, in fact no one at all was around. I stayed and watched him for a while until it got too late even for photos and when I finally left for the night he was still at it scooping up small fish and glass shrimp. He must have been very hungry and did NOT want to have to go to bed without his supper!

Mr. A’s New Friend

Earlier this week I saw that spoonie decided to drop in and say hello to Mr. A who was enjoying a quiet float around the salt marsh at low tide. They got along fine for a little while until finally our good buddy Mr. A had enough socializing and went off to continue exploring the marsh leaving the spoonbill alone to plan his next adventure…

Too Early For Shrimp?

Early this morning a group of snowy egrets were all excited about snatching up shrimp that seemed to be all over the place in the marsh pond. Each time a snowy got a shrimp it would fluff up it’s head feathers and flap around like crazy. Now normally snowys are totally incapable of staying out of each other’s business and feel compelled to make a huge fuss out of any activity that takes place. But in this case even when one got a shrimp and went into the whole routine, the others basically ignored the display and continued on searching for a shrimp of their own.

Oh, and I don’t want our pal Mr. A to feel left out so I promised him some screen time for today. I like to stay on his good side as much as possible which is why I grabbed a shot of him when he did his glide by this morning. 🙂

The Family That Feeds Together Flies Together

Yesterday evening a spoonbill was feeding in a side corner of the salt marsh along with several white ibis. There was a typical mix of adult and juvenile ibis in the group. Suddenly they all decided they needed to immediately be somewhere else and they took off. I’m going to give the edge on speed to the spoonbill with it’s larger wings, but…the young ibis kept up with spoonie quite nicely!