Shrimp boats make for a good breakfast!

As I was driving around at the crack of dawn, I noticed a lot of bird activity on one shrimp boat in particular. It was apparent that it had shrimped the previous night and the nets still contained  some small fish and shrimp. Various birds were climbing about the boat looking for breakfast.

Immature black crowned night heron

Mature black crowned night heron,

Night heron finds a a small fish.

Night heron with a small flounder.

 

Great blue heron with a shrimp.

  Great blue spears a flounder.

Sometimes you have to take a break after all that eating.

Wandering around the Bluff

Last week a friend called and said he had seen a bear or two, at the same time and place, on two afternoons. The next afternoon I was staked out across the street, fifteen minutes ahead of time, to see what would transpire. Sure enough after twenty minutes a head was peering out of the ditch.

It grazed along the ditch for a few minutes, oblivious to traffic.

Then it sauntered off through a locked gate to check for acorns.

This is one of our typical juvenile bears. In these pictures, the bea'rs head and ears appear large in comparison to it's body. As a bear matures the head will be proportionally smaller.

I've been back twice more and it's been there one of those times, 2 out of 3 is fine. 

Return of the Whooping Cranes

 

Yesterday morning I arrived in St. Marks at 0715 to witness the arrival of  5 of this years hatchling cranes. They had followed an ultra-lite plane for 54 days and over 1100 miles, from Wisconsin to St. Marks NWR. Prior to the landing at the Refuge, they did a fly over at the city of St. Marks.

The birds have imprinted on the ulta-lite, treating it as another crane and if you look closely at the pilot he is dressed in an all white "costume". All the people that interact with the cranes dress in "costume" and do not speak, so that the young birds won't imprint on them.

Here is a handler in "costume" with the crane head used in training. They act as surrogate parents and teach the young birds what to eat and how to behave.

Off toward the refuge where they'll spend the next few months before returning, on their own. to Wisconsin, Hopefully, around this time next year, they will return to St Marks NWR with prior years classes.

The whooping crane has come a long way in my lifetime, As a child the total number of birds was around 40, today it is over 600. A big step, but was still a long way to go. If you would like to contribute or just gain more information, here is the group that brought the cranes to St. Marks.
Operation Migration

Teenagers in the neighborhood

It's that time of the year when the yearling bears are chased away their mothers. This is part of the bear's breeding cycle. One of the results is the young bears come into town and start  attacking dumpsters, trash cans, pet foods, etc. They remind me of teenage kids...gangly, awkward, and hungry all the time. This little guy was about to hit a neighbor's trash can, when I interrupted him.

If you look closely under his right eye (click on picture to enlarge) you'll see that he has a fresh wound, probably a territorial dispute.

He finally tired of posing for me and loped back into the woods.

Have a great 4th of July!

A few shots of Apalachicola's fireworks show last night.

Coyotes on the beach

As I was leaving St. George Island I saw two mature eagles diving in an aggressive manner. I thought I might be able to get some decent pictures even though it was foggy and cloudy. When I got the window down and my camera out of the truck I saw what they were harassing.

Here's what I saw through a 400MM lens. 

 

At this range and low light level, I couldn't be certain if the was coyote or coydog. After some serious cropping and brightening, here's what the eagles were chasing.

It's a fine, obviously well fed, black coyote! I don't know if it walked across the bridge (6 miles) or swam over, but it appears to have adapted well.

Solstice

 

The first day of winter awoke to a balmy 66 degrees. While we've had a few nights in the 30's most days are "shorts" weather. While the fronts typically bring high winds and cool temperatures, they also bring in migrant birds, some of which are not common to our area.

I've had a couple of rufous hummingbirds hanging around for the past month. They are the first ones that I've seen. They are very aggressive and will get in your face! Good thing they're not any bigger.

The cold fronts push many water fowl into the bays. These hooded mergansers also been infiltrated by an alien horned grebe.

A pair of northern shovlers.

A  young red shouldered hawk has also been hanging around this week. That's only a small sample of the migrants that we're seeing.

Fall must be near

The mornings have gotten cooler and the humidity is much lower, but those aren't the main indicators of the approach of fall. Nope it's the critters.The sulfur and gulf fritillary butter flies begin streaming through the area heading south.

Then the humming birds start swarming around the feeders and flowers. This is the one that claims my side porch.

And last but not least, the eagles have begun returning to reclaim their nests. This is the downtown Apalach eagle that returned last week.

This a pretty nice time of the year around here.

The dangers of Apalachicola Bay

Anyone that has fished Apalachicola Bay knows that it is a very shallow estuary and even the most experienced captains are going to make contact with the bottom. As someone that runs the creeks, mouths and bars on regular basis, I'm very aware of the probability of running aground. Yesterday evening I was photographing some black skimmers feeding on a shoal and I discovered that I wasn't alone.

In the 5th photograph, the skimmer nearly comes to a screeching halt and almost flips (6th photo), but recovers and continues on his way. Made me appreciate the fact that I'm not the only that "polishes their skeg" occasionally.