Reddish Egret watches for night

A reddish egret does a one-legged, wait-for-the-night-to-come, stance near Lacissine, LA. The highway night gathering spot for egrets and their friends is one of my favorite places.  Lucky that it happens to be just where I am often passing by as the dark eats up the sky. The assembling includes hundreds (maybe thousands) of Cattle Egrets, Ibis, Snowy Egrets, shore gulls, Blue Herons, Cormorants, an occasional Roseate Spoonbill and more.

It looks as though our solitary sentinel may have snagged a spiders web on his glide to his post.

Flamingos at the New Orleans Zoo

The Flamingos at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans were pretty listless recently when we went to see them.  For that matter, so were we.  The heat just zaps your energy.

Heron hangout harkens thousands

How many Ibis can you get into the top of a pine tree?

This is the place to find out.  Last night was the 4th time I have visited the spot along I-10 at the Lacassine exit. Three times it looked like this; once there were no birds.  I think I have it figured out now -- they all start congregating here about an hour and a half before sunset. Don't come in the middle of the day.

This time, like the others, there were thousands of herons -- Ibis, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Blue Herons, Comorants and even some  shore gulls passed by ( but didn't land).

The spot is in the northwest corner of the intersection on the service road (not on the I-10 on-ramp).  Just as you come onto the service road and negotiate the sharp turn, there is a small industrial facility (looks like a sand operation). The trees behind it  are where the herons hang out. They literally fill the trees and keep coming by the hundreds.  They fill the trees behind the facility first and then spill out toward the I-10 as the sun goes down and room on the limbs runs out.

You can easily get a solid half hour to an hour of shooting photos in, depending on your lenses, the clouds and what ISO you want to go to.  I shot this at 800 and about 1/500 sec. I was using a lens equivalent to 450mm.    If you have better glass, this would be a real treat.

Fishing the flood

This is from the big flood on the Mississippi River in New Orleans in 2008.  The Bonne Carre Spillway was opened to alleviate the flooding and it made quite a site.  These were among the many who took advantage of the situation to do a little net fishing.

The newest baby

This is our newest grandchild, Sloan Buser, born to proud parents Shawn and Sarah.  Of course Linda and I are just bursting with joy.