Phil Lanoue Photography

Oops…

An egret fishing in the salt marsh this afternoon lets one slip away. The bird was so shocked he lost his fish that he just stood there afterwards with a confused look on his face while the lucky fish swam off!

Bird On A Mission

Earlier this week a bald eagle was jetting across the marsh clearly with a serious purpose in mind.

The eagle was by me in an instant so I knew I was of no concern. An osprey fishing nearby may have been the intended target, but I’ll never know because the eagle was gone behind the trees in the time it took me to think about it.

High Speed Chase

Earlier this week I was out at the marsh when I noticed a gull being chased and harassed by another gull. I don’t normally pay much attention to the gulls but it looked like a seriously determined pursuit was going on so I figured why not grab a few shots.

I saw that the gull being chased had something in it’s beak which I assumed was a fish because that’s almost always what they argue over. But it looked odd, and not exactly fished shaped, so when I examined the photos closely later I saw that the gull had a small bird clutched tightly in his mouth!

I don’t recall ever seeing a gull flying with a bird in it’s beak so this was more then a little unusual. I figure it was probably a little tree swallow that we currently have flying all over the place here. Whether the gull caught the swallow or just found it already dead is unknown, but after utilizing some very speedy evasive maneuvers, the gull did get away from it’s pursuer and managed to successfully fly off with it’s prize.

Osprey Double Dipper

This morning I spotted an osprey flying right towards me from out over the salt marsh. It looked like he might have a fish in his talons so I got ready to bang off a few shots as he approached.

Well he sure did have a fish, but it wasn’t until I looked at the photos late that I realized he had two fish! One in each claw.

That osprey must have gotten very lucky either over the nearby ocean or out in the salt marsh, and was last seen flying toward the trees with his exceptional catch.

Looking For A Place To Land

This is one of the bald eagles that was flying around the marsh area Monday afternoon, and at one point he started to look down for a nice spot to land and relax for a while. At least I thought that was his plan. The eagle did indeed pick out a nice tree top branch to land in, but he stayed all of about one minute before jumping off to his next destination.

For birds that I normally see standing in one spot in a tree for hours, this eagle clearly had things to do, and staying put was not one of them!

“Get Out Of Our Neighborhood!!”

Yesterday afternoon I saw a bald eagle come swooping in across the marsh in a hurry. Out of the corner of my lens I quickly saw why. That eagle was being chased off by another eagle!

We have a mated pair that have been hanging around the marsh area for a while now and we suspect this was an uninvited and unwanted male eagle being chased away by one member of the resident pair.

Once again they flew so close I couldn’t fit all of them in my lens until finally when the trespasser turned and flew off with a dejected look on his face.