Well That’s Just Not Fair!

 A guy can handle having one alligator around when he is trying to fish in the area, it’s almost to be expected.

But when it turns into four against one, then it’s certainly time to fly off and hopefully find a less crowded fishing spot!

Wood Storks Feed and Flight

I spent some time yesterday evening with a group of Wood Storks in the salt marsh at low tide. Wood Storks can be very entertaining to watch! They generally arrive at a feeding area in small groups, and once there they begin to probe around in the shallow areas for fish and other marine species. They may feed as a big group or break into smaller groups or even hunt individually. But then when it becomes time to move on, they quite often do this one at a time. All it takes is one stork to decide it’s time to go, then one by one the rest of the group follows along to their new location!

Egret Altercation

Great Egrets have been known to have disagreements with one another, especially around fishing areas. Sometimes a large group of them can all get along just fine. Other times there could be only two, and one will feel compelled to pick a fight with the other.

On this occasion, one egret was mostly minding it’s own business, trying it’s luck fishing in the marsh pond. Suddenly another came swooping in to immediately start a territorial dispute. They briefly battled and argued until one flew off to the pond’s edge hopefully putting an end to the matter.

But it was not to be as the aggressor continued with it’s attack almost spilling out of the pond and into the marsh weeds.  Eventually the two separated and each went back to continue peacefully fishing…for now!

Alligators and Egrets

Here are a few photos from the past couple of days in the marsh.

An alligator lit by warm sunset lighting from this past weekend.

Also  two great egret flights from yesterday morning. One is an egret flight over water. In the second photo I thought it was interesting that you can see how the egret’s wings segmented out upon landing when viewed from the side.

This morning we saw an alligator come gliding in with a feather stuck on the end of it’s nose. It’s likely the feather was recently lost by possibly a snowy egret.

Morning In The Marsh

Very active in the marsh pond this morning.

We watched an alligator catch and eat one of the biggest fish we have ever seen taken by a gator in the pond. Speaking of fish, there were a few ospreys circling overhead and we saw one or two successfully grab a fish from the pond.

An anhinga had a little luck as well. The anhinga is a water bird that fishes by swimming under the water and spearing a fish on the end of it’s sharp bill. A snowy egret was utilizing a fly and fish technique which gets the water all boiling over with agitated fish. The nearby alligators seem to have the the same effect on the fish as well. Egrets were swooping around almost continuously which provided some interesting views of their landing techniques. The bald eagle also put in a much appreciated fly by over the pond. Always love seeing the eagles. Fun and interesting morning for sure.

Alligator Dining

We were watching an alligator feeding in the salt marsh. It would crawl along slowly knowing fish would be trapped in the shallow water.
Every so often the gator would lunge out and make a huge splash in the water in an attempt to stir up the fish. This tactic worked as numerous fish were even launching themselves up out of the water to hopefully escape becoming a meal. Some fish did manage to get away but many others ended up on the night’s menu for the hungry alligator. 
 
 
 
 
 

Spoonbill Flight

A roseate spoonbill flies across green reeds in the salt marsh earlier this week.

Awkward Moment

A snowy egret was busy swooping around hunting for fish and just missed flying into an alligator that happened to choose that moment to stick it’s head up out of the water to take a look at the activity.

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