Phil Lanoue Photography

Finding Shelter

It was cold out at the salt marsh this afternoon with a brisk wind that cut through you like a knife.

There was limited wildlife activity out there as most birds seemed to decide that optional flying was completely unnecessary and not a great idea.

So I was a little surprised when this tricolored heron suddenly dropped in, seemingly out of nowhere. The heron clearly was looking for a shelter from the wind and found it among the tall reeds out in the marsh. I was also impressed considerably by the approach and landing.

Gulp

A great egret from earlier this week has a bemused expression on his face since apparently the fish he just swallowed went down sideways and appears to be a bit stuck.

He eventually got it down fine but things were rather interesting for a few minutes.

Heading Back Home

We’ve had a group of white pelicans hanging around in the marsh pond lately. Mostly they paddle around back and forth following the cormorants who always seem to know exactly where the fish are located.

But as the day draws to a close, the pelicans will slowly head over to the ‘far off gator island’ which they are free to use since most of the alligators are done for the season.

Here they make there way across the pond as the late day back sun lighting adds some sparkle to the water.

Surprise Pop Up

Late today, just as we were leaving the salt marsh area, I caught some quick movement out of the corner of my eye. My first was…”what’s a squirrel doing down there?!?” But of course it wasn’t a squirrel, it was our pal the cute little mink scampering along among the dried reeds and oyster beds at the edge of the marsh.

At one point he hopped into the water, swam around for a bit (no doubt looking for a fish) then popped himself right back out again, easily dripping water off his coat.

In any case it was good to see our little buddy again. We just hope he knows enough to stay out of the nearby roadway.

There Is Still Work To Do

Earlier this week a great blue heron was seen gliding across the reeds in the salt marsh which was lit by warm setting sunlight.

We were all set to pack it in and head home, but this big guy clearly still had some important matters to attend to.

Big Turnout For The Weekend Convention

We had a quite a large crowd show up this past weekend for the wading bird convention.

Although only egrets, blue herons and wood storks were invited, a few white pelicans managed to crash the affair.

Everyone still seemed to get along fine and I heard rave reviews for the seafood buffet that was served at the event.

Happy Trio

We had a huge meeting in the marsh this afternoon (more on that coming up tomorrow) and this fine looking trio of white pelicans were involved for a while. But they soon decided to float off and check out the other side of the pond because the grass is always greener, or the fish are tastier; whichever.

Anyway on their way by…they stopped and posed for a brief moment in front of a couple of fluffed egrets that were bracing themselves against a brisk wind.

The pelicans then tightened up their formation and continued on along their journey.

High Overhead Circle

We had a bald eagle come gliding in over the marsh this afternoon. I originally was alerted to the eagle’s presence by a great blue heron that I saw looking straight up at something. I looked up as well and quickly realized what the heron was watching. A group of ducks in the pond saw the eagle as well and they all burst up in a huge panic.

But the eagle was just doing a slow, wide and high circle checking things out, I never saw him dive down for anything and in fact he eventually headed over to the nest tree and sat their alone. He even came close to having a mid air collision with a vulture.

There has been some concern because we have not seen two eagles together in the nest area in some time now. The female should be on schedule to drop her eggs but we don’t know for sure what’s going on. We seriously hope someone has not lost a mate…