Phil Lanoue Photography

On Duty

This weekend is the huge arts festival over at the park in the marsh area. A big crowd, as always, attends this exciting event.

But speaking of exciting! Here’s our pal Mr. A out manning his post and making himself available for pictures and autographs. Everyone passing by on their way to the festival had to drive by our good buddy here and as is typical, he does not disappoint the enthusiastic crowd. What a guy!

Hardly Worth The Effort

This great blue heron was fishing in the salt marsh last week and was at it for a while with very little to show for it other then a small minnow or two.

Finally the heron decided to move over to another section and hopefully have better luck. But unfortunately he just ended up looking bored and disappointed in among a group of wood storks.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow will bring better fishing.

Personal Appearance

Earlier this week one of our alligator friends came over to right below where I was standing to make an extra special personal appearance.

Always nice when one of these guys makes the extra effort to swim over close and say hello. 🙂

Competitive Eating

These are some of the group of white pelicans we had in the marsh last week.

Here, one of the pelicans eats a big dinner while his friends look on enviously. It’s best at a time like this to not drop your food because there will always be someone around ready to take advantage of any error.

These big birds especially, have no problem pushing aside your dinner mate to get a better spot at the table.

Friendly Visit

This egret was standing along the edge of the water in the marsh yesterday afternoon when his little friend suddenly popped his head up out of the water to make a surprise appearance.

Always nice when friends drop by! 🙂

Nice Decorations

An alligator swimming in this afternoon looks like he picked up some extra decorative foliage along the way.

Or perhaps he believes it will allow him to go into stealth mode and blend in with pond weeds…making it easier to sneak up on potential prey.

Such a clever boy!

Enjoying The Day

Yesterday morning a tricolored heron was standing around on a small island out in the marsh just trying to enjoy a nice relaxing day in the sun.

Soon a young alligator came floating over to claim his own spot on the island. The little tri took immediate notice and at first seemed somewhat flustered over the presence of the new arrival and even backed off a bit.

But as the alligator snuck further up into the weeds, the heron realized he had important matters to attend to (such as fishing) so he casually went back about his business. Well…not completely casual, the tricolored still decided it would be wise to do the occasional look back just to be sure.

But, as these things usually turn out, everybody wanted the same thing, just to be able to enjoy a beautiful day and soak up some sun. They each had their own way of going about it though, the heron wanted to fish a little, and the alligator wanted a nap.

“Go Eat Someplace Else!”

This past weekend a great blue heron was relaxing in the salt marsh when he noticed an ibis taking a nice slow stroll over in his direction.

At first the heron didn’t pay much attention to the visitor until the ibis started to feed close…real close. By the time the ibis started picking around the heron’s feet, he’d had enough.

Big blue coiled up his neck and whipped his head around and gave the ibis a shot sending the curve billed intruder scurrying.

Of course after all that, the ibis just continued on his way like nothing had ever happened while the blue heron kept a watchful eye out for any further infractions.