The light and positioning of the Great Blue Herons has been similar my last few visits to the rookery. This fellow was watching an established nest in another tree and tried a few times to route out at least the male from that nest. He was not welcomed, and kept returning to this spot.
As a silhouette this Great Blue Heron nest looks like a work of modern art, perhaps held in an upturned hand.
Feeding on Sweet Gum seeds is a lot of work!
A lot of probing goes on and you can see some debris falling at the bottom of this next image.
The Chickadee’s foot grasps the ball between the spikes.
Check out the reward!
I returned to the Long White Bridge twice the first week in January to find that at the end of December the lattice side work had been completed and the bridge decorated with pine rope garland.
Foot traffic was still not allowed on the bridge. I expect the sides will have a railing along the top and there will be caps on the posts, both in black.
Wintertime Spanish Moss when there is no other color to reflect in the water makes a harsh image. I’m hoping any vegetation damaged by the falling tree and repair work will rebound as we move into spring.
The Great Blue Heron took flight, getting awfully close to the bridge before he lifted up and over.
Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, Charleston, SC
January 4, 2021
The Long White Bridge at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens which was severely damaged by a falling maple tree on July 7, 2020.
My other photos of the Long White Bridge
From my research the seed balls of the Sweet Gum (or Sweetgum, depending on where you read) tree should be empty of seeds by mid fall.
Clearly this tree didn’t follow the program and several Carolina Chickadees were feeding in its upper branches on this mid-January day.
The dried pod stems are still quite sturdy, although this little bird doesn’t weigh much at 0.3-0.4 ounces (8-12 g) per All About Birds.
If you’ve ever touched one of these balls you’ll likely remember; those spikes are quite sharp.
Fellow blogger Mike Powell has captured similar scenes in Virginia where there is overlap in both the tree and the bird, including his post Acrobatic Chickadee
A perky Carolina Wren entertained me while he hunted for bugs on a vine covered tree trunk.
The vine and some Spanish Moss are good hiding places for bugs.
An occasional stop for a song is the wren’s way.
I think I was spotted.
Back to business the wren moved on up the trunk.
I mentioned in my recent post Eagle: Fish for Dinner, that a pair of Bald Eagles has taken up a new flight pattern over the rookery pond.
This causes the ducks all sorts of consternation and on this afternoon they alerted me to the Eagle’s presence.
I only know that these are Blue-winged Teals because I saw them before they took off.
The Eagle that I saw was long gone by the time this flock got into the air, possibly already having snagged his dinner at a different pond.
As a safety measure the ducks circled the pond three or four times before landing again on the far side.
January 14, 2021
It had been a totally blue-sky afternoon until about an hour before sundown. Clouds slipped in muting the sky as a Great Blue Heron flew towards his nest.
About 45 minutes before sundown, this corner of the pond was in full shade and the Great Blue Herons were settling in.
A small flock of White Ibis have been hanging out in this tree in late afternoons.
In other years Great Blue Herons have nested here.
Right now the GBH are only in the further trees and the Ibis have the run of this one
Squabbles among the Ibis are pretty common.
Sometimes they just want a bit of alone time.
