Tag Archives: birds

Birds, Charleston, Heron, Marsh, Swamp, Wildlife

Night Heron Passing Through Rookery

April 14, 2021 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

It’s time for the next phase in rookeries, the smaller wading birds.

This is a Black-crowned Night Heron who blew by heading out to one of the islands. A few were moving around so I was prepared, at least thinking about, a fly by.

Night Herons like to nest in the thick palms with plenty of cover. They still want the protection of a rookery, but more dense. This makes it harder to get many photographs since they are hidden.

In the last image above you can see part of the Egret rookery as he flew past.

These birds are fairly hard to catch in flight so I was surprised to get three images. I’m happy with one, this many is a bonus for me.

Birds, Marsh, Swamp, Wildlife

Mallard Pair

April 13, 2021 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 2 Comments

Always happy to catch a few Mallards.

I never thought Wood Ducks would be more common than Mallards, but welcome to the Lowcountry.

Birds, Egret, Heron, Landscape, Marsh, Shore Bird, Swamp, Wildlife

Dry Marsh, Everyone Was There

April 13, 2021 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography Leave a comment

Crossing over to a marsh we found…no water.

Best viewed large.

I was not walking out for a closer shot.

The shrinking water condensed all the fish into a very small area.

My guess is in an hour there were no fish.

Speaking with the head ranger we found the water was lowered, trunks and water flow blocked, to allow the Widgeon Grass seeds to finish sprouting. In a few days the seed will be out and the marsh opened up to water. The water will spread the seed all through the area, basically planting the wild grasses to support the wildlife.

Pretty clever.

The water level is controlled using the same ‘trunk’ methods from the last 300 years. The first trunks here were setup by enslaved people from Barbados and West Africa for rice growth.