“I See Nothing…!”

This morning we noticed a pair of great egrets who were sitting quietly in a tree enjoying some sunshine and minding their own business. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wood stork swooped in and decided it needed to immediately occupy the branch that the egret on the left was standing on. The surprised and visibly annoyed egret had no choice but to vacate the premises! But what I found especially interesting and amusing was the behavior of the second egret…it never moved an inch! It completely ignored the entire altercation. It never even looked at the other two birds… didn’t react in any way at all and appeared totally disinterested in the entire event. Birds can be so entertaining!

Tasty Treats!

Recently we were watching this snowy egret as it picked it’s way along the salt marsh looking for small fish and shrimp. The little guy had a very busy evening as it moved in and around the oyster beds in search of a meal. Although most of what it caught was rather small, enough of these tasty treats will fill him up and get him through the night quite nicely!

Almost Bedtime…

Last night we saw this baby alligator (we refer to any alligator 4 feet or less as a “baby”) pop it’s little head up out of the water in the marsh. The late evening back lighting caused the little guy’s head to silhouette, while creating interesting swirl patterns in the water.

Sunset At The Marsh Pond

Last night we were out at the marsh pond for the evenings’s sunset where we were treated to a magnificent display of color. I had set up a camera in advance to make a time lapse video of the sunset, of course not knowing how it would eventually turn out. I was fortunate that it ended up up looking rather spectacular!

Along with the 30 second time lapse video, here are a few selected still shots I took of some particularly dramatic moments while the time lapse was running.

For those of you who are thinking…”but Phil, where are the birds?”…If you look closely at the first still photo, there is a flock of birds flying at the top portion of the sky. And in the time lapse video at 13-14 seconds, look for a great blue heron to pop out of the reeds in the lower left corner. So…we DO have birds!

Osprey Flights

Today I thought I would go with a few recent osprey shots. It’s always exciting to see these birds flying above the marsh ponds hunting for fish. Their level of concentration is intense and their eyesight is amazing. We had one hit the water near where we were standing and the splash it made was HUGE!

Great Blue Heron Flights

Here are some recent flight shots of one of my all time favorite birds, the Great Blue Heron. Although it’s not an uncommon bird, I never grow tired of watching and photographing this wonderful heron!

Morning In The Marsh

A snowy egret keeps a careful yet curious watch on a young alligator that comes floating by in the marsh pond. Meanwhile…a great egret seems unconcerned as a larger gator cruises along making it’s morning patrol of the area.

A Peaceful Day In The Marsh? No…Of Course Not!

Yesterday we were watching a small group of snowy egrets and white ibis picking around in the salt marsh among the oyster beds at low tide. Everything started out quietly enough, but whenever snowys are involved we all know that the peace can’t last for long. Sure enough, once a snowy decided that an ibis was getting too close to his “area”, the inevitable squabble broke out! After the usual amount of squawking, bill banging and required display of wings, they went right back to the all important task at hand which was feeding…of course in this crowd the peace only lasts until the next disagreement breaks out!

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