Category Archives: A Watering Hole

A Watering Hole, Birds, Egret, Heron, Landscape, Marsh, Pelican, Shore Bird, Stork, What I Saw, Wildlife

A Great Gathering

February 20, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

The Lowcountry is known as one of the biggest and best wild bird areas in the country. Even here though finding a gathering like this is special. Something you see only a few times a year.

These photographs capture a small piece of the different flocks.

When the water levels are just right all the different species come together to feed.

When the water rises, or food is depleted, they will move to other areas around the marshes. Unfortunately for us most of the locations are inaccessible. Of course this is exactly why the animals come here in the first place.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Marsh, Shore Bird, Swamp, Wildlife

American Avocet Hunting At Dawn

February 19, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 3 Comments

Taken first light in ACE Basin.

A few minutes either way and the water would have looked much different.

Avocet is one the elegant ‘stilt’ birds, named due to their long thin legs.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Egret, Landscape, Marsh, Pelican, Shore Bird, Stork, What I Saw, Wildlife

Working The Shallow Marsh

February 13, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

This is a magical scene we rarely get to witness, especially close up.

White Pelican are surface feeders, not divers. They also work as a unit if part of a flock. Above they have pulled close together and slowly swim forward, driving the fish ahead.

As the water gets more shallow the fish are trapped and feeding begins.

This marsh has become more of a watering hole. In the photographs above many other birds can be seen in the background. Wood Storks being the most obvious, but there are Egrets, Ibis, Gull and even smaller Avocet.

This time of year, if lucky, we can come across groups like this with hundreds of birds. The jack pot ? Thousands.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Marsh, Pelican, This and That, What I Saw, Wildlife

Early Morning Pelican

February 12, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

There was a time when I would wait for ‘good light’.

That was a bad name and an even worse idea.

I now think of this as ‘good light’.

It highlights these beautiful animals, provides interesting backgrounds, and even accents the tiny droplets of mud.

Taken in the morning at ACE Basin during feeding in the shallows.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Egret, Marsh, Pelican, Swamp, Wildlife

They Knew All Along, Pelican

February 12, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

I tried my best to move slow and quiet. You can see the grasses blacking the bottom of screen too.

Of course some were watching me the whole time.

They were calm so no wild exit. Which was great. Several photographers were in the area, and maybe several hundred birds along the banks. You never want to be ‘that one’.

White Pelican and Snowy Egret gathered in ACE Basin.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Marsh, Stork, Swamp, Wildlife

Morning Wood Stork

February 12, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography Leave a comment

One of the first shots taken the other morning, just as the glare started.

A large number of birds were feeding in a shallow dip, the only one I could capture was this stork.

Might have had something to do with his size.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Marsh, Pelican, Shore Bird, Swamp, What I Saw, Wildlife

Not Seen Every Day, Pelican

February 11, 2020 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 8 Comments

Not very often can you be right in the middle of a White Pelican feeding.

This is a small group, out of the hundreds of feeding birds in the shallows.

When the big guys start to feed smaller birds move, or get run over.

A Watering Hole, Birds, Charleston, Heron, Marsh, Swamp, Wildlife

Great Blue By The Ashley River

December 16, 2019 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography Leave a comment

At the end of this marsh a dike and trunk lets the water flow in and out of the marshland.

As the tide pushes water back up the river fish move in and out of the trunk. Of course the Herons figured this out and wait for any signs of movement.

It’s a bit of a walk but you will almost always find something interesting back there.