May 1, 2022: The Rookery

We've returned from our excursion in South Carolina, but not before experiencing a few more wonders of nature.  Our fabulous host and tour guide had tracked down a rookery along a marsh in Mount Pleasant and when we visited we found a host of southern bird species sharing an obviously popular spot for nesting which included Anhingas, Wood Storks, Snowy Egrets, and Great Egrets.  And in their breeding mode they were putting on quite a display - not for us, but for their mates.

A Snowy Egret struts its stuff.

The males of both the snowy and great egrets had their breeding plumage in place and were proud to display it.  

A great egret attracting attention.

It's easy to see why these birds where hunted to near extinction for their feathers during the early 1900s.  No longer at risk of being shot, they now have more time to discuss parenting methods.

"I think we should let them cry at night."

I couldn't tell which nests had chicks in them but it appeared that the great egrets were flying back and forth bringing food in to feed chicks in at least some of the nests.

Regurgitating food for the chicks.

Meanwhile, one of the snowy egrets continued to make home improvements.

Bringing in some additional building materials.

The wood storks were well hidden deep within the trees so it's not clear what they were up to, but it appeared that the anhingas had already nested and were incubating their eggs.  

The anhingas looked like loons panting on their nests in the hot sun.

We earlier had watched a snowy egret fishing in Shem Creek at low tide and I found it fascinating how it would shake its foot in the mud to scare out a crab or a shrimp and then with lightning speed stab it with its bill.  You can see it in action in this video I took at the creek:

A couple of other interesting, non-New Hampshire creatures we came across during our travels in the low country included a reptile and a crustacean.

Brown anole  (Anolis sagrei)

Some kind of land-and-sea crab.

I don't what kind of crab that was, running around by the brackish water with the alligators, but the lizard is a brown anole, a non-native species that was likely introduced to Florida in the 1970s and has exploded in population throughout the south, largely displacing the native Carolina (aka green) anole. 

Upon returning home we found winter still hanging on strongly in New Hampshire, with barely any progress towards spring while we were away.  The red maple blossoms, the first to come out, had barely budged.  

Red maple blossoms still just emerging.

But at least the Trailing Arbutus (mayflower) are blooming in the forest.

Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens)

And, two more summer residents and a passing migrant arrived this week:

A palm warbler makes a rest stop on its way to Canada.

This pair of yellow-rumped warblers is behaving like they are going to nest right here.

On the lookout for the next insect.

Yellow-rumped warblers are an early arriver and we watched them dashing around the bare branches as well as on the ground, picking off insects, probably of the crawling variety.  The palm warbler is just passing through New Hampshire on its way to breed in Canada or downeast Maine.  I also heard a blue-headed vireo singing from somewhere high in the tree tops.

I'll end with one decidedly non-nature moment, but an interesting connection between north and south.  I saw a large ship which looked like a ferry heading out to sea from Charleston Harbor in a direction that didn't seem like a ferry route.  I took a picture and after expanding it I saw it was "The Cat" which I thought ran from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  A little digging revealed that after a few seasons off, it was returning to New England from its summer berth in Charleston.

"The Cat" returning north for its service between Maine and Nova Scotia.

This ship started life as the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command fast ferry Alakai (USNS Puerto Rico).  There's a neat video of it being retrofitted at the Detyens Shipyard in North Charleston including how it was put into drydock and then refloated.  

It's one of the larger migrating objects I've seen this spring.