Birds Galore at Magnolia Cemetery!

 

The photographer got photographed on Nov. 8 at Magnolia Cemetery! 

Gary Eaton snapped this image of me doing my thing from my perch on the bridge. A few years ago Gary founded the popular Facebook site “Magnolia Cemetery Photographer’s Group.” I was pleased to meet Gary on this day as well as another photographer named Catherine. 

There were quite a few birds to see from the long bridge at Magnolia Cemetery. Here are a pair of Wood Storks, a trio of White Ibis and a Black-crowned Night Heron. 

It had been a while since I’d seen a Black-crowned Night Heron. 

The bridge in front of me was also busy with birds. That’s a juvenile Little Blue Heron in the air. When this youngster matures it will turn slate blue like the adult on the left rail hanging out with several White Ibis. 

On the rail on the right is a Snowy Egret. 

On a nearby tree is the gorgeous Little Blue Heron.

Here’s a closeup of the equally gorgeous Snowy Egret. 

A colony of White Ibis having a meeting of the minds. Colony is the collective name for White Ibis when standing like this. When a group of them is flying that’s called a wedge. 

I’ve photographed many Wood Storks over the years. These poses are among the most unusual that I’ve captured. The green coloring of the wings is especially striking. 

as if the variety of birds shown so far wasn’t enough, a Northern Flicker dropped by! This was indeed a rare sighting for me of the colorful Woodpecker family member. 

This was only my second Northern Flicker capture. The other one was more than a dozen years ago down in the ACE Basin at the state’s Donnelley Wildlife Management Area. Check out my New Year's Day post.

Note the yellow tail feathers. This is an example of a Yellow-shafted Flicker found in the American East and North. Out West, there are Red-shafted Flickers. 

Last but not least is another Northern, a Northern Mockingbird, that I spotted from the bridge in another part of the cemetery. 

The bridge was an amazing vantage point. I barely had to move to photograph seven types of birds.

And I hope I made two new birding friends. 

For more birds of Magnolia Cemetery, you should check out my newly published second edition of "The Birds of Magnolia Cemetery- Charleston's Secret Bird Sanctuary" available through me, the author, and on my Amazon site.