A Wood Stork flew along the edge of the canal, dropping low over the water. That is a Turkey Vulture huddled up on the dike bank.
In an easy looking glide, he slid past a Great Egret before heading into the reeds and out of my sight.
Even though it was well past sunrise the light was dim from a low, not quite fog, haziness.
The pond was still and the Wood Storks were moving slowly, as if slowed down by the moisture in the air.
I like the shape of this tree and its similarity to a wading bird foot. It seemed appropriate that these Wood Storks lined up across the branches.
At first at seemed that the White Pelican had no interest in the Wood Stork as he casually paddled along.
But as he got closer I began to wonder.
Surely, the Wood Stork would have some kind of reaction.
I wish I could have seen this from another angle–did the Wood Stork reach into the Pelican’s beak?
Whatever happened, the White Pelican decided to move on, continuing to make a little flap about it.
The Wood Stork continued to pay no attention.
11/19/2018 Donnelley Wildlife Management Area
I posted some images of this scene a few weeks ago taken at a different angle and cropped in a 1X1 format. I had so many images from that outing I thought I’d try a composition that showed more of that day’s “big” sky.
Bear Island WMA is closed to the general public now until February 9, 2019 so we won’t be back to see if these Wood Storks are still hanging around.
Bear Island Wildlife Management Area, 10/20/2018
What is hiding behind the outstretched wings as this Wood Stork touched down?
The Wood Stork reveals…a Roseate Spoonbill…
The Spoonbill squawked a mild protest for almost getting landed on then went about his business.
These are a few more images from my walk down the dike on a grey day.
First we go right…
Then we go left…
and every now and then one of the birds has something to say!
These birds appeared to be successfully feeding and occasionally another would drop in to see what was going on.
About ten minutes before I took these images several hundred wading birds, mostly White Ibis, were sharing this space with these Wood Storks. I couldn’t see them, but they sure were making some noise as they fed.
These few Wood Storks ignored the “go” signal of the masses and continued their rest. I was able to get to a break in the reeds lining the dike to see what was left behind.
I could see bird activity down one of the dikes that divides the old rice field ponds where a canal widened a bit. The dike has varying heights of reeds at the edge which serves as a nice blind, but can interfere with a good shot. Hence the fuzz on the lower right of this image. The Cormorants took off just after I took this.
None of the images were great this day as the light was dull, but I saw a variety of activity. A few Wood Storks came and went, sometimes feeding and sometimes just standing around.
The light brightened a little as this Roseate Spoonbill worked his way to the far side of this canal.
For those of you who follow Ted at http://www.tpjPhoto.net, I got an image of him watching alligators for his Bad Day To Be A Fish post. He’s standing on the road that runs at the lower edge of the big pond.
As the wading birds from the feeding frenzy lifted lifted into the air some of them left, either individually or in groups.
A group of Wood Storks pulled away from the frenzied group and formed into a ragged line.
These storks circled and got a little higher then took off for a distant section of the marsh. They were soon replaced by another group that somehow got the word the fishing was good here.
