Cahooque Creek is just a few miles from my back door step and makes a for a nice little paddle when the winds are up or the tides aren’t right for exploring the area’s estuarine environments. It’s not the best paddle location for wildlife photos but occassionally you get lucky. Recently I got lucky. On my last two visits I came across a Green Heron. These little herons aren’t seen in abundance in these parts so it was a treat to see and photograph one. In fact this is the first “Greenie” I’ve had the pleasure to photograph.
The Green Heron can be found throughout the eastern United States during the summer. It is a year round resident of Central America and the northern end of South America. This small heron is unique in that it is one of the few tool using birds. It drops bait onto the surface of the water then grabs small fish that are attracted. Baits and lures used by this cleaver bird include various insects, worms, twigs, and feathers. These birds breed in swampy thickets, foraging in marshes, along creeks and the edges of ponds and lakes.
There are certanin large wading birds I always love to see. However, those birds also are some of most skiddish birds found around the Crystal Coast. A couple that are always especially hard to get a shot of are Reddish Egrets and Little Blue Herons… though admittedly the more common Great Blue Heron and Great Egret can be pretty tough to get close to as well. I also find getting within camera range of Snowy Egrets to be particularly challenging. Even though the kayak helps, allowing you to get a bit closer than you could using a land approach, it doesn’t take much to spook these guys. Here are a few shots from my last couple of kayak outings where I happened to get lucky.
Not so many years ago if someone said they’d seen a bald eagle their sanity would’ve been questioned. However, thanks to the hard work of conservationists around the country viewing an eagle is not such an unusual sight. In 1995 the Bald Eagle was reclassified from “endangered” to “threatened.” On June 28, 2007 this majestic bird was removed from the Endangered and Threatened Species List. Females are up to 25% larger than adult males. Females may have a wingspan up to 96″ while adult males can have wingspans as small as 66″. Adult Bald Eagles, both male and female, have dark brown/black bodies with a white head and tail. In the wild thier average lifespan is around 20 years though at least one captive bird lived for nearly 50 years. While their primary diet is fish they will take advantage of carrion, particularly in the winter. They have been known to “steal” fish from egrets, herons and other birds. Below are pictured an adult and an immature Bald Eagle. While both were photographed near Lake Mattamuskeet I have seen Bald Eagles on three occassions around the Crystal Coast.
