Iris in all sorts of colors are thriving around the swamp where I photograph the wading birds. This is some distance from the cultivated gardens and I’ve wondered if they were planted intentionally or just happened via a happy accident. Regardless, its a nice surprise to happen upon them.
I’ll admit that this fellow startled me a little when I heard the splash.
Well, maybe more than a little when he stuck his head up and I heard chewing noises.
I never saw what he caught, if anything. He may just have been chewing on the greenery.
The swirling of the clouds reminded me of the beginning of the movie Wizard of Oz when Dorothy was still in Kansas. It was more than a little eerie and cause to review our storm plan.
A flock of Canada Geese made their way to safety, honking and trying in vain to get into a tidy V.
It was oddly calm on the ground and we were fortunate that the system passed with no damage.
Summerville, SC 03/31/2017
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The Daily Post Photo Challenge:
“Sometimes it’s fun to take a step back from interpretive challenges and just celebrate a color: green!”
I’ve observed Great Blue Heron parents stand in  poses over the nest and chicks that must serve some function. Are they trying to shield the small chicks that have settled down out of sight from the wind or maybe concentrate the warmth of the sun? Is it just comfortable after laying on the nest for hours?
At this same nest eleven days later, it wasn’t windy and the chicks were sitting up. At first I thought the adult was just stretching, but then the wings went into this same purposeful sail-like arrangement.
Sometimes it is just a stretch…wing out, wing down, leg up, and hold, 2, 3, 4.
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The Daily Post Photo Challenge:
“This week, share a photo of things that complement each other.”
More “how’d he do that?”
A few days ago I posted photographs of an Anhinga flexing his neck in an unnatural looking way. This week I saw another Anhinga flipping a fish like a Benihana chef–he didn’t have the height but he had some other moves.
I don’t know how he stabbed the fish, especially in that murky water covered with duck weed. But once he had the fish speared it was a mere minute before he swallowed the fish … whole!
His end game is to get the fish facing head first down his throat so that any spines on the fish won’t get lodged on the way down. Flip, turn, turn, turn.
He was an expert and at no time lost his hold on the fish. At the same time the Anhinga has to swim to keep afloat.
There would be no getting away for this fish, stabbed completely through.
I didn’t get any clear shots of the fish going down and it was over in an amazingly short amount of time. The Anhinga then swam to nearby platform, lifted out of the water and fanned his wings to dry.
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Magnolia Plantation Rice Field Pond, Charleston, SC.
Or, “how’d he do that?”
It is mystifying to watch the larger birds scrunch their necks so they look like spirals, partly because it happens so fast and a turn of the head makes it look like a bad yoga position.
One turn to look the other way.
Then his head is down like a corkscrew. The rest of his body never moved as if it wasn’t attached.
A slideshow like an old-time flip book if your browser allows it:
Old rice fields at Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, SC 1/4/2017.
Enhanced by the moisture from the fog this spider web became a delicate decoration hanging over the pond.
I did not see the spinner.
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At least a dozen butterflies were zipping around these purple flowers for what seemed like a great photo op. Just when you are ready to take the shot they often are suddenly ten feet away.
With patience, they might come back.
Or are replaced by one zipping in from another direction.
Click on photos for larger view.
