Phil Lanoue Photography

Playing Horseshoes

On the same day the three spoonbills arrived, we had this big fella sloshing around in the salt marsh during low tide. It quickly became clear what he had caught, although the reveal was more then a bit of a surprise.

Our hungry alligator friend found himself a horseshoe crab and appeared to be extremely excited with his crunchy catch!

As I said, this was very surprising as we had never seen an alligator with a horseshoe crab before and never even saw one in this section of the marsh.

But our pal was thrilled and after plucking the hapless crab up out of the water, he proceeded to crunch and munch the hard shell. (note the teeth marks in photo three)

The plan was to systematically dismantle the crab into smaller, more manageable pieces for ease of swallowing.

He was flinging the horseshoe crab up in the air and at one point had it by the tail while thrashing about wildly.

Finally, after a lengthy struggle, the gator had only a few pieces of shell remaining and those quickly went down the hatch. The entire process stretched out to well over an hour by the time the crusty creature was reduced to only bits, and Mister A seemed quite pleased with himself when it was over. Bad day for a horseshoe crab though for sure.

Spoonbills! In May?!?

In a rare May occurrence for our area, three Roseate Spoonbills came gliding into the salt marsh this morning.

We normally don’t see spoonbills until July or even later in the summer.

These were mature adult birds too, not the young pale juveniles we most often see.

Seeing some of our pink friends early was quite a welcome and pleasant surprise!

After landing in the marsh among the oyster beds, the spoonies hung around for a short time fishing and preening.

The last we saw they were headed north to parts unknown, and although we hope they stick around, I strongly suspect they were only passing through. They stayed for barely 30 minutes, before taking off into the bright blue morning sky.

The last photo shows our good pal Mr. A! But what is he looking so chipper about?!? Could it be something he has hidden beneath him under the swirling water?!? Well tune in tomorrow to find out what has our boy so excited. 🙂

Cormorant Makes An Arrival

I normally don’t pay a lot of attention to cormorants, but occasionally one will make a dramatic entrance which requires giving the guy some screen time. 🙂

Short Hop To Visit A Friend

A tricolored heron takes a short hop across the oyster beds in the salt marsh to leave one snowy egret and visit another.

I guess there was something he liked better about this second snowy. They both looked nice to me but what do I know? 🙂

Morning People

Some of us are morning people, others (like me) not so much.

But I was out to catch Mister Bright Eyes here who seemed all alert and chipper and ready to get his day started.

Built For Walking

We had a pair of Black-necked Stilts show up in the marsh early this morning.

Always love these guys with their cute little bobble heads and extra long bubble gum pink legs!

Out For The Evening

On a recent evening at the marsh, we had a few local residents out enjoying the pleasant late Spring weather.

One alligator was stealthily checking out a little side cove area hoping to snag a tasty meal in the still water.

An egret was doing a bit of high stepping under the watchful gaze of another alligator. Both were having to contend with the thick mat of widgeon grass blooming in that section of the marsh. The early evening setting sunlight was just beginning to warm the area.