Phil Lanoue Photography

Slight Disagreement

In a typical situation, a blue heron and a great egret will look for practically any excuse to squabble and start an argument.

Usually, as in the case here, it’s over who is the rightful owner of a particular fishing area.

It’s not even that it’s a terrific fishing spot worth fighting over, it’s just that one bird doesn’t want the other one there on principle.

This behavior has likely been going on for thousands of years and continues on to this day. Birds will be birds. 🙂

Heavy Cargo

I thought this brown pelican flying in low over the water looked like one of those huge transport planes bringing in tons of supplies.

But no, it’s just a juvie pelican going about his usual business, flying and fishing around his area of operations which is the marsh.

“Where Did Everybody Go?!?”

This ibis was among a small group fishing in the salt marsh when he suddenly looked up and realized he was alone. He hadn’t noticed that all his friends took off without saying anything.

So our lone ibis threw up his wings in surprise, took a bewildering look around, and jumped off to go look for his friends that had abandoned him.

When brown pelicans are fishing, they hit the water like they were just tossed out of a moving vehicle. Brown pelicans are not extremely graceful looking birds to begin with, and their fishing technique has to be hard on their faces as they continually crash into the water head first.

Here are a few pelicans in action as they crash their way around the marsh hunting for a fish dinner!

Dash Through The Reeds

The sky was a mostly grey and cloudy yesterday evening at the salt marsh. But just prior to sunset, and for only a few minutes, a bit of sun peaked through clouds long enough to illuminate the reeds in a nice warm light. At that moment a great blue heron made a quick cruise through the reeds and across the marsh on the way to his evening roost.

Graceful Exit

A great egret looks elegant as it jumps off from the marsh pond on a recent afternoon.

As often as I see these birds I tend to forget how graceful those huge white wings can look.

Still Fishing

Brown Pelican backlit and silhouetted by late day sun on a recent late afternoon in the marsh. Despite the day winding down, he was still out there fishing trying to come up with a meal before heading off for the night.

“Don’t Even THINK About Landing Here!”

On a recent late evening in the salt marsh it was obvious these two egrets had some sort of issue with each other. When one came in to land the other put up his wings defiantly, and gave a seriously unwelcoming look. The arriving intruder got the message loud and clear as he never did land. In fact, I don’t know how he managed to stay airborne throughout the entire incident which went on for several intense seconds.