Phil Lanoue Photography

Some Lovely Fall Foliage

We don’t really get anything close to northern autumn leaf colors here at the beach, everything stays pretty much the same year round.

But when the warm setting sunlight hits some of the brush along the edge of the marsh just right, it almost looks like golden fall foliage. 🙂

Seafood Dinner: Appetizers…Then The Main Course

I was watching this snowy egret enjoying the seafood buffet in the salt marsh a while back.

First he ordered up appetizers: A nice fresh shrimp, a crunchy little crab, then a tasty minnow.

Finally the main course arrived, the catch of the day prepared just how he likes it, fresh out of the water.

You could tell he was quite excited with his meal too, as he got all fluffed up when it was served!

Normally when I see great blue herons fishing, they just wade right out into the water completely in the open. But when I saw this bird suddenly pop his head up out of the reeds in the salt marsh, I suspected he may have devised a new plan. Sure enough, he decided to go into full stealth mode.

The heron tiptoed his way slowly and carefully through the reeds stalking his prey like a sneaky predator. (anyone else come to mind when reading this description?) He tried one way, then reversed direction and tried the other way. Unfortunately this method did not appear to be a huge success, I never saw him catch any fish.

But I do have to give him credit for trying a new technique. Who knows? Maybe next time it will work perfectly!

Evening’s End…

As the day winds down and night approaches, a lone alligator stands watch in the marsh as the low setting sunlight casts a purple hue on the water.

The Flights Were Stacked Up

Last week we had a good size crowd of wood storks coming and going all evening. They almost always arrived one at a time and they kept at it for about an hour and a half until the entire salt marsh area was warmed by setting sunlight.

Nothing Here So It’s Time To Go

This past weekend I was watching this snowy egret fishing in the salt marsh. Well… he was fishing, but he wasn’t catching.

So after a few stabs at the water he decided to try his luck elsewhere and move on to hopefully more productive fishing grounds.

Done For The Day

A white ibis on a late evening flight back to his roost in the swamp.

We don’t call them “muddy ibis” by accident. This one still has marsh mud all over his face and feet!

Eagle Up A Tree

Yesterday afternoon I spotted this juvenile bald eagle sitting in a pine tree along side the salt marsh. He looked to be maybe a two year bird, no signs of getting any white on his head yet.

He sat around just taking in the sights for a while when suddenly an impossibly bold mockingbird decided it might be a fun idea to dive bomb the eagle. Although the young eagle was clearly unimpressed, if the mockingbird’s strategy was to try to make the eagle leave the pine tree, it worked!

Within a few seconds the juvenile bald eagle jumped off from his branch and flew away. As he left, he flew so close by in front of me I could not fit all of him in my lens.