Phil Lanoue Photography

“The Look”

Saturday morning we spent quite a while watching this roseate spoonbill in the marsh pond. During most of that time the spoonie was standing on one leg with it’s bill tucked behind his back, napping. About the most action we saw was when it would occasionally wake up and preen a bit before going back to sleep. But I really wanted some action photos, hopefully including some flight shots, so I waited him out figuring he had to get up at some point and likely fly off to the far back edge of the pond where a lot of the wood storks were congregating.

Finally our fluffy pink friend woke up and then I saw it…the look. I knew from prior experience watching these birds that they often get a certain almost imperceptible look about them when they are preparing to takeoff. Sure enough, he angled his head toward me then back straight ahead. He did this little bit of a drop down in preparation for liftoff, and that was it, he took flight!

He did indeed fly off toward the far back end of the pond where he joined his wood stork friends in a tree, but I got the shots I wanted…patience paid off! 🙂

Addressing The Troops

We had a huge crowd of wood storks in the marsh pond yesterday morning. At one point an egret was parading back and forth in front the group as if it was inspecting the troops. Of course the wood storks, being a rather odd looking bunch, look about as much like an alien invasion as they do any sort of military troop. It is fun and interesting to see them all lined up like that though. 🙂

Sharp eyed observers may also spot one adult and two juvenile little blue herons in front of the assembly…

Black Skimmer

This morning in the marsh pond we had a black skimmer show up and make a couple of passes through the water before heading back toward the ocean. You can see a pair of egrets in the background in the first photo. In the last photo, the water under the bird is bubbling up and almost looks like it’s boiling. Actually, it’s all the fish swimming and jumping in a panic when they see the skimmer flying over them!

Evening Flight

Last night I was watching this great blue heron that had been standing along the edge of the salt marsh preening. Once he stopped, looked up, and got that ‘look’ I figured he was thinking about leaving…and that’s when I got these shots as he flew across the marsh.

The Big Guns Were Out!

Yesterday late afternoon we had some thunder storms with heavy rain move into our area. By evening the storms had blown by and we decided to go check out the marsh pond specifically to see if any alligators might be out. We know that frequently after a rain, alligators will come out because they like to swim around in the newly freshened pond with a higher water level due to the rain.

Well not only were some out but the BIG boys were out! The heavy artillery, the big guns, the battleships, whatever you want to call them they were out and swimming all over the pond area. Most of you have seen me post photos of the babies recently (we refer to any alligator 5 feet and under as a “baby”) but the youngsters were nowhere to be seen. It was adult swim with no kids allowed last night!

“‘Gator, what ‘Gator…?”

Oh, THAT ‘gator! Last week we saw this snowy egret picking around in the marsh pond under close watch by our pal Mr. Alligator. In the first two photos snowball is just paying attention to the little fish in the water and not at all to his surroundings. By the third photo it looks like he spotted Mr. A, and snaps his head back to attention as seen in the last photo. So what happened? Well Mr. A just continued on with his lazy glide across the pond expressing no further interest in the little snowy who was now joined by his friend the tricolored heron. And everyone lived happily ever after. 🙂

“I’m Hot…I’m Tired…Don’t Bother Me”

The weather is really starting to heat up here along the South Carolina coast and even the animals are beginning to feel it. This young alligator in the marsh pond yesterday dozed off right in the middle of swimming, so even the water is already too warm! He had been gliding along sort of hunting for food, but then suddenly just quit and shut it off. It’s like the poor little guy’s batteries just wore down. Plus he had that look that I took to mean everybody is better off just leaving him alone…

Morning Activity In The Marsh Pond

There was some bird and alligator activity this morning in the marsh pond, and even though it was out a good distance, I had to grab a few shots of the ‘action’. A group of white ibis were paying only token attention to a little alligator that was feeding in the area. The two ibis on the left however paid no attention at all to the gator as it went back and forth behind them…they simply continued on with their naps.

About ten minutes later most of the ibis had flown off but a spoonbill arrived to join the remaining two. They kept a bit of an eye on the alligator as it continued to work the area for fish, but once it started to move off, the spoonbill and ibis went right back to their own feeding!