Phil Lanoue Photography

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.

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? 🙂

Little Greenie

Just this week some of the green herons started to arrive, right on schedule. I always enjoy seeing these colorful and active little herons and many will begin searching for nesting locations.

This guy from yesterday afternoon landed right in front of me on a perch in the marsh pond. Then he flew back into the trees where I know there have been previous green herons nests, so this could very well be an advance scout!

Silent Hunter

We were watching an alligator quietly feeding in the marsh this afternoon. He kept going into stealth mode, diving under the water and staying down for quite a while. That’s how we knew he was serious.

You could see swirls in the water where he was fishing and he was eating whatever he caught under the water as well, I never saw him come up and chew anything.

He would go under facing in one direction and then surface facing the other. He went back and forth patrolling only a relatively small area but he covered every inch of it.

This guy meant business.

Active Day for Snowball

Yesterday afternoon I was watching this snowy egret bouncing around the salt marsh among the oyster beds at low tide.

He flew out across the reeds then landed nearby me where he proceeded to feed and I saw the fast little guy scoop up several tiny fish and shrimp.

For all the energy these active birds put out, they need to refuel often.