Planet Water Bird
...this way to egress...
It may have been Barnum and Bailey, or one of those vintage carnivals with a menagerie... a sign pointed the way to the egress, and folks thought it meant another interesting exotic beastie....
...no, it was the egress, the actual exit. Which caused them to have to come around and pay again to see the rest of the exhibit.
Here you will find no tricky exits, only a celebration of Planet Water Bird. Photos shot over the kayak's bow, and on foot on islands and wetlands.
...no, it was the egress, the actual exit. Which caused them to have to come around and pay again to see the rest of the exhibit.
Here you will find no tricky exits, only a celebration of Planet Water Bird. Photos shot over the kayak's bow, and on foot on islands and wetlands.
Laughing gull photobombs feeding snowy egret on Chincoteague Island VA.
snowy egret
The maniacal little snowy egret is a hoot to watch hunt. It runs about, spreading its wings, dabbling its bright yellow "slippers" and generally looking frantic. It's plumes once adorned ladies hats, to the detriment of the egret. Now recovered and protected, snowies abound on Assateague, Chincoteague and other healthy wetlands and marshes.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Egret/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Egret/id
great egret
Unmistakable, big white bird, loves lakeshores, rivers, and salt marshes. The Snowy egret is smaller and has yellow feet and a black bill. Great egrets' hunting style is more tai chi, where the snowy is more frantic. Kiwanis lake in York PA is an Important Bird Area; three species of herons nest there IN the city: black crowned night herons, yellow crowned night herons, and great egrets. Like snowies, great egrets were once hunted for their breeding plumes.
http://www.yorkaudubon.org/kiwanislakeIBA/index.html
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/lifehistory
http://www.yorkaudubon.org/kiwanislakeIBA/index.html
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Egret/lifehistory
- The Great Egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society, one of the oldest environmental organizations in North America. Audubon was founded to protect birds from being killed for their feathers.
Gulls
...so ubiquitous they got their own page...click pic below...
...so ubiquitous they got their own page...click pic below...
black crowned night heron
Black crowned and yellow crowned night herons are seen around our lakeshores, generally late in the evening. I've also caught glimpses of them in salt marshes. This one was at Lake Redman. This is the most widespread heron in the world.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron/lifehistory
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron/lifehistory
green heron
I see these along wooded lakeshores, like Pinchot, they hide in the bushes and stalk the branches. You can get quite close before they tiptoe back into the bush. the one on the bottom was spotted in a shallow backwater of the Susquehanna River. This is one of the world's few tool-using birds.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/green_heron/lifehistory
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/green_heron/lifehistory
great blue heron
This magnificent bird leaves no doubt in our minds that his ancestors were dinosaurs. When startled, he lets out a krAAAAAAAAck! worthy of the best sound effects techie in Jurassic Park. No confusing the great blue with any other heron. From a distance his coloring blends in with the lakeshores and marshes he loves. I've also seen one stalking mice in our tall grass pasture. Bottom row, an immature great blue in winter on Assateague Island VA.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/id
Great blue heron tracks in sand at river's edge...
common grackle & boat tailed grackle
This songbird often hangs out at the edges of streams and fishes, though Cornell's id page for grackle doesn't mention this (I've seen it many times, and the one below is clearly fishing the edges of Lake Marburg for something). Grackle has a longer tail than the non-native (invasive) starling and a golden eye. I've followed the tracks of the boat-tailed grackle on Assateague beach, walking, just walking, over the dunes and down the beach. Maybe looking for ghost crabs or other small invertebrates on the beach.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Boat-tailed_Grackle/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Grackle/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Boat-tailed_Grackle/id
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Grackle/id
osprey
Fairly tolerant of kayakers and other passersby, ospreys still require a zoom lens to capture. Below: Lake Marburg, Eastern Neck Island and Rock Hall MD. Osprey cams are easy to find on the web, fun to watch the kids grow up.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/id
and the local osprey cam: http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/Osprey-Cam
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/id
and the local osprey cam: http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/Osprey-Cam
brown pelican
The first time I saw a line of pelicans soaring over the waves off Assateague's beach, I thought "Who let the pterodactyls out?" Technically, more closely related to dinosaurs than pterodactyls are, the last scene of Jurassic Park shows a line of brown pelicans flapping over the waves. They arrived on Assateague sometime after I began going there in the late 70s and 80s.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/brown_pelican/id
more on America's most haunted lighthouse (Point Lookout): http://www.ptlookoutlighthouse.com/
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/brown_pelican/id
more on America's most haunted lighthouse (Point Lookout): http://www.ptlookoutlighthouse.com/
bald eagle
When I was a kid in the 60s, you never saw eagles. Now they've rebounded so successfully that I nearly always see one when kayaking anywhere from York County PA through the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers. Below, an immature bald eagle hangs out on a snag on the Susquehanna River. They go through various stages of brown to splotchy plumage before getting the white head and tail at 5 to 6 years old.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/id
Conowingo eagle facebook (a local hotspot for photographers, because eagles congregate there in winter):
https://www.facebook.com/ConowingoBaldEagles
our local eagle cam, near Lake Marburg: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1592549&mode=2
a guide to the varying plumage of different aged eagles: http://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/01/27/a-guide-to-aging-bald-eagles/
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/id
Conowingo eagle facebook (a local hotspot for photographers, because eagles congregate there in winter):
https://www.facebook.com/ConowingoBaldEagles
our local eagle cam, near Lake Marburg: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1592549&mode=2
a guide to the varying plumage of different aged eagles: http://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2013/01/27/a-guide-to-aging-bald-eagles/
American coot
Yes, it's a thing, a real bird, not just an epithet. Ducklike, but recognizable by the white bill. A bit shy about the camera.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/id
swallows
Often cliff swallows, swoop and dive over open water hunting bugs. Often nest in clever mud-spit houses up under bridges.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tree_Swallow/id http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cliff_Swallow/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tree_Swallow/id http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cliff_Swallow/id
below: tree swallow on snag on the Susquehanna River
Cliff swallows zoom in and out of mud nest on the underside of a bridge at Lake Marburg. I had to shoot these with my mighty fine Nikon Coolpix L100, while sitting in a kayak in bumpy water, so there.
Canada geese
Once migratory, now year round residents of most of our lakes and rivers. Some parks have taken to using various tricks to keep them and their gigantic poop off beaches. Still awesome. The cries of wild geese in flight sound like hunting hounds: tapping into legends of the Wild Hunt in fall.
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/canada_goose/id
more here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/canada_goose/id
and this
The clever and adaptable crow is right at home on Assateague beach's parking lot. He's omnivorous, so a few cheetos are fair game. Still, pack it in, pack it out, don't leave your (possibly hazardous) leftovers for the birds.