Phil Lanoue Photography

Another One Got Away!

Some of you may remember seeing the post from earlier this week where an anhinga lost it’s fish in a daring mid air escape.

Well this afternoon I was watching this spoonbill fishing in the salt marsh when I saw it catch a fish and the spoonie seemed to have the fish firmly grasped in it’s spatula shaped bill. But then, to both my and the spoonbill’s astonishment, the fish flopped out and dove to freedom!

The spoonbill tried to recapture the fish with a quick lunge and grab, but the fish successfully flew away from spoonie and out of my frame.

The now angry looking pink bird plunged it’s bill back into the water in an attempt to recapture the fish but no luck for spoonie but score one more for a lucky fish!

Quick Hop Across The Marsh

This past week I enjoyed watching a spoonbill jump off from the salt marsh at low tide and take a quick flight over to another spot.

The first location looked good enough to me, but what do I know? 🙂

Chasing… Something

Snowy Egrets seem to spend a large portion of their lives in a state of constant agitation. They look for any reason to get themselves all fluffed and puffed so they can start squawking and chasing something.

In truth, they don’t even need an actual reason to get all fired up. Snowys are completely capable of working themselves into a state of frenzy over… well, nothing.

Such was the case last week when I saw snowball get himself fluffed up and start to run full speed across the salt marsh for no reason that I could see. I’m sure in his mind this behavior was totally required, but I never could locate the object of his excitement.

That’s a good part of the fun of watching snowys, they are always up to something, and it’s usually very entertaining. 🙂

One Lucky Fish…One Unhappy Bird

This past weekend I was watching an anhinga doing some early morning fishing in the marsh pond.

At one point she came up with a fish, then did a perfect mid air flip and what looked like was going to be a perfect catch except… the fish bounced off the lower portion of the anhinga’s bill, and splashed into the water where it was able to make a speedy escape!

Score one for the fortunate fish, but zero points for the disappointed anhinga.

Oh well, more where that came from, and this bird will go right back in and try again…

Shopping For Dinner

Alligator on a recent evening out in the marsh looking for something to make for dinner. Well, maybe “make” isn’t the proper word, I suppose it’s more like something to quickly grab and gulp down. That’s not so different than many of our dinner plans at times. 🙂

“Mind If I Jump Through?!”

Earlier this evening we had a couple of spoonbills feeding in the salt marsh during low tide. But once one decided to fly off, he apparently concluded that the only way he could do that would be to leap over his friend.

Eventually they both left the marsh in search of a nice spot to rest for the night.

Unusual Chase

Early this morning there were quite a few birds fishing in the marsh pond. I saw this egret catch a fish then was surprised to see him jump up and fly off with it because they usually just gulp fish down right on the spot.

I soon found out why the egret was flying when I realized he had been jumped by a wood stork that wanted the egret’s fish. Two things immediately struck me as odd about that. Wood storks are generally not this aggressive, and there seemed to be plenty of fish out there for everybody so why the huge fuss over this small fish?!

It got even more unusual when a second wood stork joined in and now the egret was being chased by two storks all over the pond area. The egret had a heck of a time holding on to his fish as the chase continued out over the salt marsh.

Eventually the wood storks gave up and the egret got to keep his fish but it sure seemed to be a lot of trouble and effort over one small fish!

Security Provided By “Radar”

Yesterday evening in the salt marsh, in addition to a pair of spoonbills, our egret friend “Radar” was also on duty keeping his usual eye on things.

At one point Radar put the spoonies on high alert and he was clearly upset and concerned about something nearby. Once we saw Mister You Know Who pop his head up out of the water we realized what got Radar all frazzled. The spoonbills stayed behind Radar as the Head Egret In Charge stared and glared down the alligator.

With the comforting knowledge that Radar had the situation covered, the goofy pink birds were able to relax a bit and continue feeding on the glass shrimp which were jumping around all over.

Eventually the gator got the message that Radar was not in the mood to be trifled with and he simply moved on. A bit later the spoonbills watched as the alligator glided on by in a completely non threatening manner.

He made one pass by Woody who was also busy fishing and did not pay much attention as the dejected gator slowly drifted along on down the marsh.