I was busy watching a Green Heron when I realized there was a commotion going on in a nearby tree top.
The juvenile Grackle was calling out his hunger in a big way.
After delivering a good size insect the chick continued to call for more.
The adult was not persuaded to go after another round of food and stayed put, listening to the chatter.
I wasn’t that surprised to spot this juvenile Armadillo as Ted had just seen an adult in the nearby woods. I was surprised that he didn’t run or jump. He didn’t even seem to know or care that I was there. Not that I was making that much noise but wild things tend to know we are there way before we know they are.
I watched him as he industriously rooted around in the soft ground hoping to get a full body view. The pine cone in the next image was of standard size, maybe six or seven inches (15 – 20 cm), giving a sense of his size.
Armadillos have poor eyesight and this little one never lifted his head to have a look around, just kept on digging and rooting for lunch.
Little Blue Herons will perch on logs or rocks to search for food rather than wade if something solid is available. With the water completely covered in duck weed it’s hard to say how deep it is.
This pond has had a lot of water level changes, up and down, this spring which has freed a number of fallen tree branches that had been hung up on the edges. This Little Blue Heron took full advantage of a log as a hunting spot.
I couldn’t make out what he was plucking out of the water but it seemed to satisfy him.
This is a long named bird and long named plant! The Powdery Alligator-flag doesn’t look like it would have much to feed a Hummingbird but this one spent several minutes investigating this single stalk.
After circling a few times she perched for a short rest.
I was able to move to a slightly closer spot, then a cloud covered the sun. And as is the way with Hummingbirds, zip and she was gone.
The Great Egret chicks waste no time when the adult returns to the nest with food. It’s every chick for himself, and the first order of business is to latch onto the adult’s beak or neck.
The egrets’ necks are very flexible and the chicks know how to encourage the regurgitation of their dinner.
The adult always takes a pause and looks skyward before producing the meal.
Then he bends one more time and one chick opens wide while the other watches.
It was hard to tell if they both got something this trip. The entire maneuver got repeated but they were all moving around so much I lost track of which chick was which.
When the chicks were smaller the adult would supervise and maybe have to do some enticing with the food to get them to eat. Now that they are nearly full-grown the adult quickly moves out of reach of those sharp beaks.
Taken 5/29/2019
The Barred Owls I have observed spend a lot of time watching before they strike their prey.
When the time is right, the dive is very precise, and fast.
And sometimes after all that the prize is pond detritus. I didn’t see if he dropped this clump of leaves in flight or after he landed, but pretty soon he tried again.
The Bonaparte’s Gull and Forster’s Tern look a lot alike and I always have to check a reference when I see either. I happened to capture one of each in similar poses during my recent beach visit.
The gull is slightly larger, but when you see them zooming along above the ocean waves that is hard to tell.
After watching the relatively sedate Bonaparte’s Gulls Feeding at the beach a Forster’s Tern came along and showed off some different flying skills.
It was all about speed.
Hover, dive and repeat.
With the rolling waves and lack of contrast I didn’t get a full splash down image.
Yes, they are fast!
In between stronger gusts of wind the tern hovered higher over the water as he looked for food.
There is not much contrast in these images of a pair of Bonaparte’s Gulls feeding in the ocean surf. The day was dull and the birds coloration mostly matches the water, with only their black wing-tips and orange feet standing out.
However, they were fun to watch and gulls are great practice for in-flight bird photography due to their relatively slow speed and predictability.
It was also windy and this pair was expending a tremendous amount of energy for what was small food. Whatever they were catching they quickly swallowed without me seeing it.
They dropped in and lifted out of the water with ease and flew in tandem as they moved up the beach.
Myrtle Beach State Park, SC, 3/17/2019
I’ve only seen Glossy Ibis a few times in South Carolina and was surprised to come upon this one feeding in an old rice field pond at the end of February.
Ibis will eat about anything they find while probing mud or wetlands.
When they turn in the light the Glossy Ibis’ colors are spectacular.
