Feeding frenzy off our seawall: 1-21-19

Lots of bird and dolphins

Brown Pelicans over a feeding Bottlenose Dolphin

Unsuccessful dive by an Osprey

No fish.  He missed.

Score this time: Fish 1    Osprey 0

Labs next door

Reddish Egrets at Ft Desoto County Park: 1-3-19

Reddish Egret

Sharing the lagoon with a White Ibis and a Snowy Egret

Flying in

These conspicuously long-legged, long-necked waders are coastal birds more tied to salt water than any of our other herons or egrets.

They often draw attention to themselves because of their feeding behavior: running through the shallows with long strides, staggering sideways, leaping in the air, raising one or both wings, and abruptly stabbing at fish.

Their feeding movements are often likened to a drunken sailor.

“Leucistic is generally when the plumage is all lighter than normal but the annual is not an albino, which pertains to an animal with no pigment at all.  Leucistic animals have some pigment, but not the normal darker coloration of the rest of their particular species.  On the other side of the spectrum is melanistic, in which case the birds are darker than normal for their species, as these animals have an overabundance of pigmentation.”  Thank you Ann Paul!!!!!!!

They also feed by standing still with partly spread wings:  schools of small fish may instinctively seek shelter in the shaded area under the wings and can then be more easily stabbed by the egret.

However, this Reddish Egret is not leucistic according to Audubon Florida Guru, Ann Paul, and I am forever grateful to her for her expertise on this matter.  These birds are called “pied.”

There is a dark morph/phase

and a White Morph/phase

and an different coloration in the young birds

So with all the various color patterns (“pied,” “leucism,” “melanistic,” “albinism”), it’s probably safer to just say that some species have colorations that are lighter or darker than is normal for that species.

White Ibis shots from our deck and video from Ft Desoto

White Ibis with a tasty morsel

Interestingly, adult White Ibises can feed in fresh or salt water and often in our lawns looking for worms and grubs, etc.  However, in order to develop properly, baby ibises must be fed fresh water prey. Therefore, the adults that nest on Egmont Key where there is no fresh water need to fly across the channel to Ft Desoto or Tierra Verde where there is fresh water where they can get fresh water prey items for their chicks.

White ibis with a Greta Egret on the dock

Potpourri of local shots

American White Pelican off our seawall 

Spider webs have always fascinated me

Essentially our only cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant

The birds on North Shore Beach as we ran by on our daylight run.

Pine Warbler, one of 6 songbird species gleaning insects in our oak tree the other morning

Royal Tern flyover with a Half-beak in its bill

Kayak training wheels

Turkey Vulture, one of our two main vulture species.  The Turkey Vultures hunt primarily by smell whereas the Black Vultures rely more on their eyesight.

Adult Little Blue Heron on the fence next door

and flying off behind our mangroves

Part of the gang next door