Phil Lanoue Photography
I previously worked as a news and sports photographer. Recently I have been enjoying wildlife photography. My approach toward bird photos is similar to sports photography. I attempt to capture mostly action and hopefully a unique perspective.
Christmas Hoodies!
Every year we get a visit from some hooded merganser ducks at a local pond who generally show up a week or two before Christmas. We didn’t have a chance to look for them until this afternoon and sure enough, there they were, Mr. and Mrs. Hoodie!
It was nice to see this cute couple still keeping the Christmas tradition alive. 🙂
Woody Drops In
A young wood stork dropped in on some of his friends in the salt marsh on a recent afternoon.
Some friends; they didn’t seem to be at all impressed with Woody’s arrival. In fact they actually appeared more bored than usual…(if that’s possible)
Grey Day, But Not For Everyone
Looking up all I could see was a dull grey sky and assumed that was how it would be for everyone.
But when I saw this osprey gliding above me, I realized that from his view, the world must be full of all sorts of colorful and interesting sights.
Shake It Off
On a recent afternoon I was interested in watching this egret’s drying off technique. He seemed compelled to get himself all in a twist to make sure every last drop of water went flying off.
Looked to me like it worked fine but what do I know? 🙂
Practicing…
Earlier this week, trying out your best standing on one leg routine seemed to be all the rage over at the salt marsh.
I’m giving the win on this one to the egret.
The ibis gets points for effort, but didn’t have the technique down perfectly.
The great blue heron looks like he ‘thinks’ he should win, if only factoring in his coolness factor.
But the egret had the most style I thought and deserves the first place prize.
Just Cruisin’ The Salt Marsh
This afternoon we were watching a brown pelican as it took a leisurely glide back and forth across the salt marsh.
The pelican would occasionally hop up and jump at a fish but mostly he was just taking it slow.
A great blue heron paid no attention to the pelican as it cruised on by, which surprised me a bit because I doubt that heron has seen a lot of pelicans lately.
Muddy Ibis
A white ibis knocks back a small fish it just plucked out of the water in the salt marsh among the oyster beds yesterday afternoon.
Whenever I see one of these guys looking all filthy I can’t figure out how the bright white egrets manage to stay so clean while the ibis often get covered in marsh mud.
Oh well, the ibis are fun and unusual bird and I always enjoy watching them at ‘work’.
Sometimes It’s Just Not Worth The Effort
Two snowy egrets were fishing together in the salt marsh this afternoon when one plucked out a pretty nice fish.
Well… snowys being snowys, nothing can just be simple, everything has to be a giant production. So of course the one in the back gets his head feathers all raised up in a huge display and starts to chase his lucky friend who has the sense to starting running off with his prize.
But the chase stopped almost as quickly as it began. So apparently even a snowy can recognize a lost cause and cut his losses and just let the other guy keep his fish.
I did feel a little bad for him though. In that last photo snowball does have kind of a dejected look on his face when he concludes it’s hopeless and he’s now just standing there with his wings tucked back in watching a successful escape.
Phil Lanoue Photography 