Our Second Act-LSSI - Final Day -Pt 1

On our morning of our last full day at Little St Simons Island we left even earlier than our other two mornings. Our goal was to get to the North Dike and position ourselves somewhere in the middle of the path well before sunrise. I had hoped that we might be in a great position to see the wood storks, roseate spoonbills, great egrets, and herons streaming in from their roosting spots.

We arrived with our headlamps still on. We parked our bikes off to the side of the path and began to set up - David had brought his new spotting scope and attached it to my other tripod. I set up as usual. We could not hear a thing - not one peep from any birds - total silence. As we stood next to each other I said to my brother - look towards the trees way out past the marshy areas and scan for owls. I told him owls would absolutely love sitting a top the trees scanning down below them as the sun rises. We both initially looked due west and scanned the tree line. We kept scanning in the near darkness as we began to hear some birdsong. Finally, as the morning sky was getting bright enough to make shapes we heard the unmistakable hoot of a Great Horned Owl from somewhere behind us!! I thought to myself - are you kidding me? We both immediately turned in the direction of the hoot - the tree line in this direction was also quite a decent distance away. The magnificent hooting continued - along with birdsong getting louder - it was magical! David looked up from his scope and looked at me and said - I think I see him! I quickly looked through his scope (I can see further with his scope than my zoom lens) and sure enough…. he spotted him right on top of the tree canopy!! We could not believe it. I told him to keep watching him through his scope while I moved over to very quickly get behind my camera. If my camera had not been already set up there would not have time to capture these two shots.

Here is my first shot - looking due east into the dawn’s early light which created a silhouette of the Great Horned Owl. My heart still races when I look at this moment.

As the Great Horned Owl was on high alert and kept looking either north or directly east - something had his attention - I crept a little closer to get this last shot of him while still being quite a long distance away. Just after I took this he flew due east (away from us) and we looked up to see a Bald Eagle heading right towards him from the west! I was unable to get that shot as it all happened so quickly - but wow! We then high-fived, hugged, and stood in total disbelief. We were so fortunate to have witnessed this breathtaking encounter. We quickly decided to grab our gear and get back on our bikes to see if by chance we could spot the owl again.

As we were coming back through the tree line we saw the sun just starting to edge up over the horizon. I took out my cellphone to grab this photo. Immediately we decided that trying to spot the owl again was probably not possible so we decided to hustle to get over to Norms Blind - we were very close to it.

The light, the action, the awesome beauty - was more than we could have hoped for.

Great Egret flying in to join the party -

Spectacular breeding behavior - Anhinga couple.

David said - look up, incoming Wood Stork! :)

You know by now how much I love the contrast in lighting that can occur at daybreak - the inky darkness of shadows and the brilliance of the first light that pokes through. This particular morning it was extraordinary! When this high contrast occurs I always feel extra energy from the birds or mammals moving through it. Or maybe it is just my excitement. I always feel extra energy in the atmosphere around me in these moments as if we all know how special these rare moments are…