Lately one of my feathered friends here at the Pelican Bay Century 21 Office has ~ shall we say ~ become very "territorial"
Last summer I wrote about him in Lunchtime At The Canals Of Pelican Bay. At that time I thought HE was a SHE. I've gotten a lot closer since then and realized he is a HE by the color of his feathers.
The Anahinga doesn't know how to share or play well with others. When my friend the Great Blue Heron comes gliding in to have breakfast or lunch, it's a good bet that Anahinga will chase him off. This has been going on for a good week solid now.
It started on January 4th... The Great Blue Heron was waiting for me to come out to feed the fish, I grabbed the company book keeper so she could get a good look at him.
He begins to hunt for food and the Anahinga dives into the water from his perch, swims underwater to where the Heron is staking his lunch.
The Anahinga proceeds to chase the Heron out of the water, but that isn't enough! He comes after me next!
That's right, straight out of the water, straight after me with that extremely sharp, pointy beak of his, hollering the whole time.
Our book keeper couldn't believe how nasty the Anahinga was. I chased him back and he'd turn and come back after me. I had on my riding boots but am pretty sure that his beak could puncture them and wasn't taking the chance on finding out for sure.
Do I have my camera outside with me on this day? Of course not!
Since this incident you know I've been bringing my camera out with me every time I go to feed the fish.
This "behavior" has now occured every time my friend glides in for his meal.
(He is so graceful on his final approach.)
Once he's landed he begins to stalk the fish ...
Until, that sharp beak pops out of the water and chases the Heron away...
(I didn't have a good shot of that actually happening, (without a fish involved) however if you look at this shot of him drying his wings in the reflection of the water you can get an idea of just how sharp that beak is.)
The herons feathers literally get ruffled as the smaller, meaner bird chases him away!
I think he looks rather handsome with the ruffled feathers though!
One day last week, the Anahinga was making darn sure that the Heron was not going to go back to the water..
He was so intent on watching the Heron that he didn't care how close I got to him.
I walked right up to and around him talking photos, all the while waiting for him to chase me. He didn't care what I was doing. He'd look at me with those strange red eyes then back at the Heron..
Then he got tired of me and waddled like a duck with his wings still spread back to the water.
The Heron, thinking he was safe to hunt again went back to the waters edge...
Well, it wasn't so safe..The Anahinga was ready for him and once again chased him off, this time more feathers got ruffled...
So what happens next?
The Anahinga pops his head up out of the water with his lunch, and walks on to the grass of right in front of the Heron and me as if to say Na Na Na Na Boo Boo
(Told you that beak is sharp)
The fish almost got away, the Anahinga fumbled it, but recovered it and swallowed pretty quick.
(I couldn't make this up if I wanted to!)
I have taken lots of photos over the last 10 days of these two. I'm sure other shenanigans go on like this all over Pelican Bay and.. Century 21 Sundance's Susan Southerland has blogged about her listings that she has in this gated community. Stop by her blog and have a look!
You never know what kind of antics you'll get to photograph in your back yard!
Check out Pelican Bay Shenanigans ~ The Video when you get a chance, it's way better then the pictures!
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Beautiful creatures! Do you take pictures for National Geographic? You'd be wonderful!