From Out Of The Depths

Recently we were watching an area we knew an alligator was doing some late evening fishing in, when suddenly it surfaced. This appearance by Mr. Gator sent the panicked fish flying out of the water in all directions…clearly the alligator was enjoying a little late night snack!

 

Fishing Clinic

Yesterday afternoon in the salt marsh we saw something that looked rather unusual. At first glance it definitely looked like a great blue heron, but we hadn’t seen one with this much orange and rust coloration before. It had to be a juvenile as that color pattern is characteristic of an adolescent great blue. But the juvies we normally see look approximately the same as the adults…a little smaller, thinner and often a lighter shade of blue and grey. This guy really stood out with those orange “accent” colors!

But what made him even MORE interesting was how skilled he was at catching fish! We saw him catch several when nearby adult great blues were coming up empty. So he might have been a youngster, but he was putting on a fishing clinic that a few of the old timers would do well to pay close attention to!

 

“Mind If I Join You?”

Yesterday afternoon this great blue heron was doing a little casual fishing in the marsh pond when his alligator pal (with the really white teeth!) decided to drop by for a visit. After exchanging pleasantries, the gator settled in for a nice nap in the sun and the heron went back to fishing.

Wood Ducks

Yesterday we decided to head back over to the swamp to see if the canoodling wood ducks were still around…and they were! Again we saw a male and several females. The male is particularly striking in appearance, especially his multicolored head which is somewhat unusual. One bird book I have said that the male wood ducks have a “bizarre face pattern”. I’m not sure I agree with that description, I think they are quite distinguished looking and apparently his entourage of female friends agree!

From Out Of The Swamp

Yesterday afternoon I saw this very large alligator lumbering up from out of the swamp…he was so long that I couldn’t fit all of him into the frame! There is a paved path along one side and he marched himself right across it and into the brush that borders a marsh pond. This gator moved in a very slow and purposeful way and I suspect from looking at it’s size that he was likely a fairly old guy. Also, if you look closely you can see that he is still covered with duckweed and other muck he picked up in the swamp.

Caught Canoodling!!

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go check out the swamp to see if there was anything going on. We didn’t expect to see much since it was a dull, overcast day and most of the wildlife seemed to be laying low.

But…we did spot this trio of wood ducks relaxing on a tree stump a little further back in the swamp. Mr. Wood Duck seemed to be quite pleased to have a female on either side of him, but those two, as it turned out, were not the only females in the swamp. Within minutes a third female arrived and she got Mr. Wood Duck all excited and in no time at all they were canoodling together right there in front of the other two!

The original two females tried their best to act casual and disinterested until finally the female on the left decided she had seen enough of this shameless display and sent our boy packing. He swam around a bit before disappearing back into the swamp. However, right before leaving he seemed to have spotted me and gave me this look…I couldn’t tell if he was proud or embarrassed!

A bit further down from where all of this was taking place, we saw this big boy lounging around in the swamp. He seemed a bit jealous that I was paying so much attention to the ducks, so I promised him I would run his picture today along with the ducks and that seemed to satisfy him. I had no intention of breaking THAT promise, especially if you look at the size of this guy. There has to be four or five more feet of tail curling back into the weeds that you can barely see!

Everybody Gets One!

Recently we were watching a great egret and a great blue heron doing a little evening fishing in the salt marsh among the the oyster beds. For once there was no fussing and fighting for who gets the biggest and best fish because there seemed to be  enough for everybody. Each of them managed to grab a nice fish dinner which they were able to happily enjoy in casual comfort!

Black Skimmer At Sunset

A while back we had a black skimmer make an appearance in the marsh pond at the end of the day. The late evening setting sun lit the water nicely with layers of color.

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