Tag Archives: Bird in Flight

Family Columbidae - Doves

Mourning Dove In Dead Tree

August 23, 2023 Ellen Jennings 1 Comment

I wasn’t sure what this bird was at first, but his postion in a dead tree made an interesting image.

Mourning Doves are fast when they take off, and I don’t think I ever got an image of one in flight before.

He had flight skills to show off, too.

Did I say fast? And also they are prone to changing their flight plan as they go, so tracking him didn’t pan out so well. But he was looking right at me as he went by.

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC
August 21, 2023

Water Birds

Anhinga, Flying By

July 6, 2023 Ellen Jennings 4 Comments

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, Charleston, SC
June 16, 2023

Shore Birds

Brown Pelican In Flight

July 1, 2023 Ellen Jennings Leave a comment

It was a little too windy for this Brown Pelican to just glide over the water…

…he was working it the whole way I watched him across the harbor.

Baby Pelican Cruise with Coastal Expeditions, leaving from Daniel Island on the Wando River side down to Charleston Harbor and the New Crab Bank just off Shem Creek.

Brown Pelican, Nest Material

June 29, 2023 Ellen Jennings 5 Comments

Brown Pelican nests don’t amount to much and if this is all you can deliver at one time it is a good thing.

Brown Pelican Flying In With Nesting Material

I try to avoid “the hand of man” in my nature images, but the closeness of this sign and the blurred boat above show how intimately entwined these birds are with humans.

Brown Pelican Bring Mate Nesting Material

Hmm, which one is MY mate?

A very delicate pass-off maneuver with those big beaks.

Success!

The bird on the nest didn’t get up so I suspect there might already be eggs or new chicks under her. From a bobbing boat you don’t always get to see the full story.

Baby Pelican Cruise with Coastal Expeditions, leaving from Daniel Island on the Wando River side down to Charleston Harbor and the New Crab Bank just off Shem Creek.

Brown Pelican Dropping In

June 26, 2023 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

In one of the passes we made on the boat tour past Castle Pinkney I noticed this pair of adult Brown Pelicans resting in a Palm Tree. There didn’t seem room for a third, but he made it work.

Baby Pelican Cruise with Coastal Expeditions, leaving from Daniel Island on the Wando River side down to Charleston Harbor and the New Crab Bank just off Shem Creek.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks are Back

April 20, 2023 Ellen Jennings 2 Comments

I had been wondering if we would see Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in South Carolina this year; they only starting migrating here from Florida in the last few years.

Last year it was May and June when I got pictures of them last year, although not at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens.

On Saturday, in the fog, there they were! Five of them just standing around in a tree in one of Magnolia’s recently cleared swamp areas.

This morning not far from the above picture these two were soaking up the sun on an Alligator Ramp.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on Alligator Ramp

A mother Wood Duck and her brood paddled on by.

Whistling Ducks are cavity nesters like the Wood Ducks, and may use some of the man-made nest boxes or the tree cavities recently used by the Wood Ducks.