Phil Lanoue Photography
I previously worked as a news and sports photographer. Recently I have been enjoying wildlife photography. My approach toward bird photos is similar to sports photography. I attempt to capture mostly action and hopefully a unique perspective.
Morning In The Swamp
I know what you all have been thinking…you know them, you love them, you can’t live without them…so where are the alligators?!
Well this turned out to be a warm sunny morning so I figured I would head out to the swamp to see if anybody might be out sunbathing. And yes indeed there was!
Several gators were out enjoying a pleasant nap in the sun, while various coots and moorhens went about their morning, floating around picking at swamp weeds, squawking and fussing at each other as is their typical behavior. One particularly curious coot even followed an alligator as it glided slowly along in the swamp. Possibly it was a young bird and had never seen an alligator before. The alligator, however, didn’t pay any attention to the coot and continued on his way to pick out a nice spot in the sun!
“Hoodies”!
My all time favorite duck is the hooded merganser so I really look forward to this time of year when they begin to arrive in our area.
We saw six “hoodies” yesterday in a marsh pond, three males and three females.
What I find to be both interesting and amusing about these cute little ducks is their head crest which can be raised or lowered. In the first photo you can see this male has his lowered at the moment, but it will be seen raised in all the rest of the photos because that’s how I prefer to photograph them.
To me the comical mergansers are almost like a cartoon bird. Something that was imagined and drawn up for an animated movie.
I love the face of the male with that bright orange eye in his black face and the extremely bright white head crest
The female, with her brown head crest raised has a Bride of Frankenstein look to her I always thought.
The mergansers are very entertaining to watch as they float around the pond occasionally chasing one another around, and when they rise up out of the water and puff out their chests, it truly is an amazing sight!
I’m hoping to have more opportunities to watch and photograph these diving ducks and if some stay around you will all be seeing more of them for sure.
November Flights
Continuing in the tradition of showing various flight shots at the end of the month that haven’t been previously posted…here are the flight shots for the month of November!
Bald Eagle
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Northern Harrier
Osprey
Snowy Egret
White Ibis
White Pelican
White Pelicans
This morning we were surprised to see a couple of white pelicans arrive in the marsh pond. These pelicans are not super rare in our area but unlike the brown pelicans which we see frequently, the white pelicans are rather uncommon so it was a treat to see them. They seemed to hang around with the cormorants mostly, which did not turn out so good for me because the cormorants would leave whenever I got near them and the pelicans would follow soon after.
After a brief visit they left for parts unknown, but they were fun and interesting to see!
Fish With Mud Sauce
Yesterday afternoon I was watching this great blue heron fishing in a shallow pool of water at the edge of the salt marsh.
The heron was staring into the water, and I was staring at the heron. I really didn’t think he was going to catch anything, the water did not look to me like there was anything swimming around so I figured he was wasting his time. At about that moment was when he struck and plucked out a nice fish, which immediately proved which of the two of us knew what we were doing.
After catching the fish the heron walked over to land where he promptly dropped the fish in the mud. I know they don’t normally like to eat muddy fish so I expected him to wash it off which he did, but he did not put much effort into cleaning. He must have been really hungry because after a very quick rinse, the great blue gobbled down the fish mud and all!
“This Oyster Bed Isn’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us!”
Monday afternoon we were watching a snowy egret minding it’s own business fishing around the oyster beds in the salt marsh during low tide.
But an arriving snowy must have decided that this was HIS oyster bed and would permit no other occupants, so he rudely sent off his friend. The displaced snowy took it all in stride however. So it goes in snowy egret world…some days you chase, other days you get chased.
Ibis Crabbing
It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday so we decided to head out and see what might be happening in the salt marsh.
We were watching this very determined white ibis patrolling among the oyster beds at low tide in search of a meal.
At one point we saw him snatch a small crab out from under the oysters which quickly became a tasty treat for the always resourceful ibis!
Many Thanks To All…
I wanted to thank all the wonderful people who have made caring, and supportive comments about my mom’s recent fall and injuries.
My wife and I appreciate all your kind words greatly.
Mom is still experiencing some pain and doing about as well as can be expected. Unfortunately, compounding the situation is that she resides in an assisted living facility for Alzheimer’s residents. This means she is unable to help contribute toward her recovery in the same ways most of us would be able to. However, her doctor feels confident that her injuries will heal and that she will be up and moving around in a couple of weeks. The accident certainly could have been worse and we remain positive and optomistic that she will make a complete recovery.
Today was the first day we had a chance to get out and enjoy a beautiful day on the marsh. We saw many wonderful birds such as bald eagles, great blue herons, white ibis, wood storks, cormorants, merganser ducks, kingfishers, and this great egret pictured here who was taking off from the marsh pond back lit by late afternoon sun.
Phil Lanoue Photography 