The Roseate Spoonbill made a permanent claim to this branch. A few others came and went yet the Spoonbill spent the morning in that same spot.
The first shot I had hoped the Snowy Egret would shift a little. Never happened.
I came back a few times and of course pushed the button again.
A single pink bird the entire morning.
Several scenes here taken in a few ACE Basin marshes the other day. Each photograph is a little different environment , yet all were shot within marshlands the same day.
Snowy Egret in an open cut and old rice field.
A large adult Alligator drifting through a pond with a deep cover of duck weed.
Tricolored Heron flying between stands of reeds and cane. The waters were covered by duck weed with open spots.
Great Egret moving along the edge of a tall dike. Older dikes are covered with growth on the sides hiding the fact they are really tall walls of dirt and mud. On each side is a large marsh fed with water from a series of trunks.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
A few scenes of Great Egrets in an old Charleston rice field.
This marsh area is behind a dike along the Ashley River just up stream from Charleston.
The reeds and cane must be at least 6 feet tall now. Another few weeks and they will begin to bow down and turn golden.
A Great Egret watching the water return in salt marsh cut.
In less than an hour this cut will be filled as the tide rolls back in. This is approximately 19 miles to the ocean. It’s a little flat here.
A Great Egret here moving between two dikes. I was down low and could have lost any chances due to the higher grasses. Lucky the bird stayed just high enough to catch a small series.
He went straight to the corner where dikes connect, and a stand of trees blocking any further images.
The definition on the wings came out fairly good. One of those times I must have stayed with a Spot Metering on.
Donnelley WMA, South Carolina.
The largest dike in this marsh separates tidal salt marshes from miles of fresh water wetlands. All the locals know which side to work based on the waters depth.
Below a Great Egret waited on an old trunk piling as the tide turned. Water moves fast here, the current pushing fish along with it.
The larger birds hang and wait for this delivery service. Like Uber Eats, only fresher.
Great Egret, ACE Basin.
You would never know that Egret was sleeping there if you were standing on that dike. They like to sit by trunks to watch for small fish flowing in.
The first shot I didn’t see the floating gator head on the right. It wasn’t really obvious, which I think makes the shot more interesting.
Best viewed large.
A few individual photographs of several locals in a marsh. All images were taken in the Donnelley wildlife area, ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Below a Great Blue Heron flew over the open water between a dike and the thick reeds. These reeds probably go back a mile before reaching another smaller dike.
Above, a Roseate Spoonbill perched over the sale marsh side of a dike. The salt area winds along to the shore, maybe 15 miles away.
Another Great Blue Heron, here close to the edge of a tree line. It’s hard to see but another dike is back there (the line of taller brush). This section is a giant series of walled off, dikes, rice fields and retaining ponds from many years ago.
Last the classic look of a Great Egret in flight. Tall marsh grass in the back is mixed with wild rice.
The actual grain of wild rice looks to be smaller than a wheat grain. Local Native Americans did harvest it, the yield was hardly worth the effort. The rice plantations here grew an Asian rice brought up from Barbados in the 1600’s. That rice was first introduced by the Portuguese in the 1500’s.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
