A low tide capture here, White Ibis digging for prey.
Like most wading birds an Ibis will eat just about anything. They prefer worms and crustaceans found with their curved pointed bill.
At the shore and salt marshes Ibis are a favorite target of Gulls. When an Ibis catches a fish they must work hard to position and swallow the prey. Gulls have time to swoop and steal a fish.
This bird walked along pulling out ‘who knows what’ on the way.
Made for easy shots.
Almost like a military air show. They can fly in perfect formation.
Never once do they come close to touching each other.
They turn, even dive together as a unit.
You can’t not wonder how they do it.
Slow glide to steep crashing dive. A fully documented Brown Pelican hunt. The most I could compress this to was nine images.
The sequential photographs here may be the most detailed I have caught to date. I almost missed publishing these as they got lost in volume taken that day.
Above is where it started, the bird slowly gliding over Tarpon Bay (Florida).
As soon as a school of fish was spotted the Pelican turned and began to line up the dive.
Once a fish/school was selected it took less than a second to hit the target.
Finally a pin point dive, hitting the water.
The impact is loud and violent.
The bird went under and quickly came up flying off.
The amazing thing is the Pelican will repeat this head first crash over and over until the fish are gone.
There is a trick here to lessen the blow. The Pelican will always twist, turn and angle his head to the right. You can see it here, and all the other articles published on this site.
The Spoonbill around Tarpon Bay seemed to travel alone, not in a group as they do in the Lowcountry.
Once I noticed this it was easier to watch a few come in and pick a good spot hoping for more to follow. And they did.
A group of Spoonbill is called a ‘bowl’, not a flock. Clever.
Below is a second bird that came in a short time later. I took a different angle, the sun had changed, but the landing path was the same.
Note; the same plan on a following day did not work at all. They came in from all different directions.
A movement to my right… and he comes creeping out of the Mangrove.
He was sitting under the branches the entire time I was photographing some Spoonbills.
Click any image for full size.
Note; these Heron have a strange habit, if really lucky you can grab a shot. They lick their lips! Yep. OK, they have no lips, but they will stick out their long tongue and lap around the beak. No shot here but I have captured it several times over the years. Very funny.
This shot was a spur of the moment ‘snap shot’. I had taken way too many photographs and another fly by wasn’t needed.
I took it anyway. It’s a ‘thing’, an uncontrolled, no thought, action. Raise camera, push back focus, zoom to length, snap shutter, repeat, repeat.
Every once in a while you get a surprise, or at least something you like.
Odd angle, off color blue shallows, big Pelican.
If you have no expectations, why not? It’s fun. It’s digital.
Look close and you can see a Ring-billed Gull that was almost a casualty of this dive.
The Pelican timing was like synchronized swimming.
Watching Brown Pelican fish is always an adventure!
The opportunity we always hope to get, and rarely do.
However, I do admit to a little setup here. I had watched several Spoonbills approach patterns before these.
It ended with a nice soft finish.
Better yet, none of the others took offense to him landing in the middle.
