I panned along with this big Wood Stork as he came into the marsh from the back woods.
They look clumsy and all strange angles. However they are smooth in the air.
Wood Stork flight in an old rice field.
Wood Stork Fly By
Category Archives: Stork
Marsh Scenes
When we get to a marsh or swamp and find many different birds and actions happening, at the same time, it’s easy to just start shooting anything and everything. This means I will have tons of random wildlife shots. I will focus after a bit, but rule 101 says get the shot. Below are a few of the initial ‘get the shot’ images.
1) A Great Egret dropped down as we first entered. He was joining a few others already feeding. I wanted to get my first inflights right away to be sure I had the camera settings correct. I’m not comfortable enough yet with my new gear to ‘set and forget’.
2) A group shot below using the big Pelicans are the main subject. I hadn’t shot the Pelicans since the beginning of the year. They can take off in mass with little warning. So first thought was the Pelicans, but shoot wide enough to catch the Egrets and Wood Storks in the background. I have had times where big flocks took off immediately on seeing me giving me a few initial photos only.
3) Last here was a scene happening just off to my right as I was shooting the other photos.
A Wood Stork was walking away with something he had caught. In the reeds a  Great Blue Heron was watching, probably considering his options to steal from the bigger Stork. It never happened, but I was sure it was about to. Looking at the image now, I think he has a stick. The Heron may have noticed that too and skipped his plan.
Out in these marshes when there is a sudden drop in temperatures fish can die off, or at least be stunned. When this happens every critter in the area comes for the free food. I did see stunned and a few dead, fish a little later. Most birds only want fresh kill. Bald Eagles, Alligators, and of course  Vultures aren’t so picky.
Images taken in the ACE Basin, Donnelley wildlife area, South Carolina.
Wood Stork With White Ibis
The Wood Stork looks almost like a big Ibis. At one point they were even called the ‘Wood Ibis’. Turns out the are actually in the stork family.
OK, so who’s going to tell the bald guy?
Wood Stork, All Alone
Storks prefer to travel in small groups but not always. They also like Spoonbills. There was one deep in a tree nearby.
Two birds with opposite mannerisms. Storks are calm, Spoonbills a clown. Yet if you see one, chances are the other is around somewhere.
Stork Chasing Spoonbill
This is one of many Stork and Spoonbill interactions taken one morning in a rice field at Donnelley wildlife area.
There were a number of times a Wood Stork chased Spoonbills away from the only log in the area. A Roseate Spoonbill would climb on the log, another would push him off, then repeat, finally a Stork snapped. Storks are like calm old men, Spoonbills are clowns.
I think there were so many like this some images were just skipped at random. At least I had color coded these in the PC as to do files.
Group Fishing, Wood Storks
The web site here has taken a shift towards wider shots, landscape, and the Lowcountry. However this is still a site with the vast majority of photographs wildlife.
That said I visited the ‘to do’ files and found a series of Wood Storks feeding in the ACE Basin. Well, four feeding, one just watching.
Clowns Over Stayed Their Welcome, Spoonbills
Roseate Spoonbills and Wood Storks have the complete opposite temperament. You have big pink clowns, and serious looking ‘old man’ tall guys.
I find it funny both species tend to flock together, at least for a while.
Spoonbills aways gather, and look to climb, any log or branch in a marsh. They will push and snap at each other almost like a game. All these Spoonbill were juveniles making it even louder.
Sooner or later one of the calm Wood Storks will lose it…enough with the chaos.
Below a Stork snapped at, then ran off, the clowns.
Calm was soon restored, the Storks enjoying their quiet time again. The clowns will soon be back, the routine repeats itself.
Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Stork In A Very Old Live Oak
A stork, one of the tallest birds in North America, on a tree branch. The bird looks almost tiny.
This tree is an ancient Live Oak, a slow growing southern tree. The Spanish Moss in this scene must be over 7 feet (2 meters) long.
The Live Oaks here in Magnolia Cemetery surround a large pond, probably once a retaining pond. The land was originally the Magnolia Umbra Plantation with a main house built in the late 1700’s. The Live Oaks were here from the plantations days.
The size of these trees always amaze me. The other day I walked around them and was lucky enough to find plenty of the locals up in the branches and wading in the ponds.
Best viewed large.