The main image here is the one most often published by photographers.
We all fall for the pretty pink ballerina.
My second favorite pose is the full ‘Spoon’ presentation like above.
They are probably the only species we are happy to get the ‘bird butt’ shot.
That’s the sign of a true Rock Star LOL.
Just about every type of bird that came to the sand bars showed up at the same time. Only think missing was a Pelican.
While other birds were using the bars and shell mounds to rest I think the Spoonbill just stopped to gather up together.
This is a breeding adult. The feathers are gone from the head and pink cape feathers are prominent.
A Spoonbill coming to a sand bar.
Both Ibis and Spoonbill were here, the number of birds kept growing as they came in for the evening.
I wanted to be sure I caught the full flight and landing so I shot these photographs a bit wider than most.
Click and image to view full size.
A temporary agreement to ignore each other.
This will not last long.
Small Spoonbill factoid; When on dead branches and old trees a Spoonbill cannot stay in one spot very long. They climb all over it. Eventually several want to be on the very top at the same time… flaps and snaps are inevitable.
I looked over and there he was, just about on the ground. I never saw him coming.
Tall wading birds don’t take very good photographs head on…way too ‘thin’, nothing to see or focus on.
A head on angle like this, a little body, a slight shift, gives you something to work with. Very glad I caught this one, just different enough.
I hope he wasn’t trying to fit in.
Besides the Spoonbill there are a large number of Blue Teals, Mottled Ducks, Willett, and Semipalmated Sandpipers.
Poor light made the water gray but helped with the brown birds.
Taken in ACE Basin, South Carolina.
This was a spur of the moment photograph shot only because of the Spoonbill. Turns out it’s a pretty good example of what the thick marshes look like in the winter. Looking close I can even spot the small canal and water through the reeds.
