Phil Lanoue Photography

Hacking Up A Hairball?!

Earlier this week I was watching a great blue heron fishing in the salt marsh. At one point he caught a fish, not a huge fish by any means, but one that I’m sure he was happy to have all the same. Then right after he swallowed it, the heron took a few steps in my direction and stopped. I thought he had a funny look on his face, but then when he puffed himself up, I was worried that something was wrong with him…maybe the fish didn’t go down properly or all the way. Suddenly, he leaned down over the water, opened his beak and looked just like a cat hacking up a hairball! I didn’t see anything come back up though, and after a few seconds he straightened right up and went back to business as usual. I watched him for a little while longer to make sure he was okay and he continued fishing as though nothing had happened at all.

Autumn Alligator

We haven’t seen any alligators in the past week since the temperatures here have begun to drop a bit. This isn’t unexpected at all and may, in fact, signal the end of alligator season until Spring. Even so, it’s still possible to see the occasional gator out and about during the Winter months. I even have a photo of an alligator in the snow that was taken during a rare South Carolina snowfall!

For now though, here’s one from last week that I thought I would share. And yes…for those of you sharp eyed viewers out there, it does indeed appear that one of his bird neighbors left a small deposit on our boy’s nose!

Sunday Eagle

On Sunday morning we saw a bald eagle fly across the marsh and land in a pine tree in the distance. We had a general idea of where he’d gone and decided to see if we could find the exact tree so we could set up nearby in hopes of getting a flight shot if he took off. Well…we managed to locate the eagle and had a pretty good vantage point for taking photos. At one point he seemed to be calling for one of his friends, but…no one showed up. This may have given him the idea to go off in search of his friend because he abruptly left the pine tree and took a low swoop right at us and almost directly over my head! What an amazing sight on a beautiful Sunday morning!

Lost In Thought

This past weekend we saw an egret come in for a landing in an area already occupied by a wood stork. But as you can see, Woody didn’t mind the new arrival at all. In fact, he barely flinched as the egret came swooping in…he seemed to have something important on his mind!

Shaking Off

I saw this osprey yesterday evening shaking off water after diving down into the marsh pond in an attempt to snag a fish. No luck for the osprey this time…the fish got away and the osprey got drenched!

Just Another Beautiful Day In The Swamp

A while back we saw this baby alligator (we refer to any alligator four feet or under as a “baby”) enjoying some morning sun at the edge of the marsh. I really liked the expression on his face, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. And in many ways that’s true…his biggest concern for the day will likely be getting enough nap time in the sun!

“You Have That Crab…Or Does It Have You?”

Yesterday I was watching these two white ibis fishing in the salt marsh at low tide. One of them plucked a nice little crab up from out of the marsh mud, but surprisingly it quickly shook the crab off it’s bill and dumped crabby back into the mud! The clearly distressed ibis then flew off, immediately followed by his friend. I couldn’t figure out why they both left the crab which normally would’ve been eaten until I looked closely at the photos later. That crab had really latched onto the ibis’ bill and gave it a good pinch which was more than enough to deter the ibis from any further action. So…crabby wins one this time and lives to tell the tale of how he fought off a hungry ibis!