What is your favorite morning place? The kitchen? The porch? Lounge chair? Mine is the dock next door. A pink hue appears in the sky and gives way to the gray December dawn that greets me as I walk down the dock. There is a small lagoon that extends along the neighbor’s yards. At low tide this lagoon is a favorite feeding ground for the local marsh birds. There is an old fallen down pier with some bare pilings still exposed at the far end. All of the locals love to wait on their favorite old piling while waiting for the water level to be just right.

As they sit in the pilings I capture them in various poses and interesting expressions. Most of them let me get quite close and seem to love to pose for photos. That is what I call “piling it on”. Some of the herons have their favorite piling and won’t share or let others on their perch. The Snowy Egrets get rather expressive when a rival tries to land on or near their piling. Old Man River, the Great Blue Heron has been photographed every year on the old pier. I hope to get a close fly by soon but he does not like his photo taken and lets me know it with a loud squawk of protest before flying off. Going to miss that Old Man River.

Hope you enjoy these photos of piling smiling faces and feathers. Winter is just around the corner. Keep warm. Blessings.