Phil Lanoue Photography

Tricolor Fly And Fish

Yesterday afternoon we had this tricolor heron do a quick swoop into the salt marsh during low tide and he proceeded to zip around the whole area in search of a tasty snack of fresh minnows.

The colorful and active tri would hold up his wings and frantically go in all directions chasing the small elusive prey.

The little heron was a lot of fun to watch and he caught quite a few of his favorite fishy treats. He stayed there for almost half an hour and I suspect he was likely full judging by the amount of those fish he happily consumed.

Always exciting to have one of these guys running around because I know they can be counted on to produce a few photo ops.

Night Heron

This afternoon we had a juvenile night heron come flying in and he was in a huge hurry.
The thing that was odd was that normally we might see night herons fly from out of the swamp in early evening, and head out north across the marsh to spend the night in unknown areas.
But this guy was doing the opposite, he was flying in from the marsh and back toward the swamp in mid afternoon.
Very unusual. Was he just being a goofy kid? I don’t know.
The third photo especially, shows how pretty these birds are and how nicely they stand out from the green trees.
Much nicer than the overcast grey sky such as we had this afternoon which always makes the background go totally white.

So What’s That Look For?!?

This morning an osprey came swooping into the marsh area and as he flew overhead he gave me an odd look.

A short time later I saw the osprey land in a dead tree along side the edge of the salt marsh. I went over to see about possibly getting a look at him, but instead, he was the one taking yet another good long look at me.

Not sure what’s on his mind, and also thinking it may be better if I never know.

Egret Convention

Well the egret convention was in town this morning and as is typical of most meetings…there is a lot of standing around and very little actually gets accomplished.

Slowly Arriving

The wood storks are only just starting to come in over the past few days. It almost seems like there are showing up one at a time, like this fellow here.

By the end of the month and into Aug. we should have well over a hundred practically filling the trees.

Wood storks have a face only a mother could love, but they are interesting birds and fun to watch.

All In A Frazzle

This snowy egret got himself all fluffed and frizzied while walking among the oyster beds in the salt marsh yesterday.

At first I thought that maybe an oyster had Snowball by the foot, but no, once again it’s just a case of a snowy being a snowy.

They often get all in a tizzy over anything…or nothing.

2 Errors On The Day

This morning a great blue heron and an egret were fishing nearby each other in the salt marsh. They were getting along fine because they were on a pool of baitfish and everybody was snatching them up as fast as they could.

They were going so fast that they each dropped a fish in their excitement to wolf them down so quickly.

Normally both birds, but especially the blue heron, would rather catch one or two large fish than have to use the energy to catch lots of small ones. But it all turns out fine in the end because if a bird eats enough of the tiny fish they will get filled up, it will just take a bit longer.