Phil Lanoue Photography

Slow Day

Not a whole lot going on around the marsh this afternoon.

At the water’s edge we had an anhinga giving me a look. Also, an alligator laying down in the soft grass giving me ‘the’ look.

At one point a white pelican did a brief circle overhead about a mile up. I hoped the pelican would land in the marsh pond, but no luck.

So that’s about it for today. 🙂

Tricolored Herons will often put up their wings and get all excited and start ‘dancing’ around when they spot a fish. This Tri put on a bit of a show while fishing in the salt marsh during low tide earlier this week. I saw him snag a couple of small fish so he was in the right spot.

His bright blue bill and reddish head and tail plumage indicate our friend here is in breeding condition.

What’s The Rush?!

This morning I was watching an anhinga fishing in the marsh and he was doing quite well, floating in and out and catching several small fish.

Normally, when an anhinga is done fishing, it will make it’s way over to a portion of land because the bird has to stand around for a while and dry off the stretched out wings. But this guy suddenly burst up out of the water and flew off in a huge hurry. They can fly with wet wings if they need to but that’s usually reserved for an emergency situation such as evading a stalking alligator.

I suspected that might be the case here but I never did see an alligator although one could have been submerged and in stealth mode.

Perhaps this fellow just remembered he was late for a lunch date with the lovely Mrs. Anhinga…

Well At Least He Took Care Of ‘Business’ First

Earlier this week I saw an osprey approaching from out over the salt marsh. He was flying fairly straight until I noticed a sort of brief pause and it seemed like he pulled up for a second.

Quickly I realized he was doing a mid air lightening of the load. But I’m happy the osprey did that prior to flying directly over my head which is just what he did seconds later!

Juggling Act

Yesterday afternoon this anhinga surfaced in the marsh pond right in front of me with a fish stabbed on the end of his sharp bill.

After a quick jiggle and toss, the fish was mid air and headed down the hatch!

Time To Go

We had two great egrets fishing in the marsh this afternoon and they both decided it was time to leave, one right after the other.

Missing The Target?

I decided to check out the swamp earlier today to see who might be out and about. I saw a few alligators swimming around, and I scared one baby (maybe a two footer) who was walking up out of the water but then quickly turned and scurried back when he caught a glimpse of me. I felt bad for the poor little fellow.

A little later I saw this one big guy come gliding in. I noticed a bent over reed frond making a circle and it looked like the gator was heading right for it and would swim through the center of the ‘target’. I wish he had done that because it would have been funny and made this story more interesting. But as you can see he passed just to the side of it, totally missing the target.

As he slowly glided by in front of me though I could see this was a pretty good size boy. I couldn’t fit all of him in my lens and ended up chopping off the back third of his body and tail.

That Time Of Year…

I saw this female anhinga, right, quietly standing on a rock in the marsh this afternoon drying off her wings and minding her own business. So she certainly appeared shocked at first when a male anhinga suddenly hopped up out of the water and joined her on the same rock.

At first I thought an argument and a fight would quickly erupt, but that was not at all the case. Apparently she liked the looks of this guy and seemed fine with not only letting him share her rock, but they immediately started making eyes at each other.

It’s possible an anhinga love connection was made right there on the spot!

I wonder now if this will forever be ‘their’ rock, the place where it all started? 🙂