Roseate Spoonbills follow the ebbing and flowing water in the tidal marshes looking for food. The tide was coming in and this group was moving with it towards the shallower water.

It was barely perceptible to the human eye that the water was moving. Those shiny bubbles are created by air escaping from the recently flooded mud.

The Spoonbills, however, know when it is time to go: over the berm where I was standing: follow the leader.

Roseate Spoonbills

The height of the water on  the other side is controlled by the SC Department of Natural Resources using trunks that were originally placed when rice was grown in these ponds. Too deep for feeding, the Spoonbills landed in a tree to rest.

When I turned back a few minutes later the inlet where I first spotted them had filled with water and none of this mud was visible.

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