A beautiful Saturday along with some sad news

I found out some very sad news today. In the past, you may have seen my photos of a couple of Reddish Egrets that had transmitters located on their backs. In 2014 and 2015 there were 5 Reddish Egrets that were tagged in Lee County. In the last week, Ding#2 and Darling, two of the well-photographed Reddish Egrets at the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge succumbed to the impact of red tide. CROW (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife) does an amazing job with caring for all of the sick and injured wildlife that is brought in to them. CROW is especially busy when red tide affects our wildlife. They tried everything they could to save the tagged Reddish Egrets, but were not able to do so.

I did see one untagged Reddish Egret looking for breakfast at Ding today. They are so fun to watch as they dance around.

It was a good day to see several other types of birds.

We made a quick stop by the Bailey Tract to get a few photos.

I’m not sure what the next little bird is. Maybe a Carolina Wren or a Great Crested Flycatcher? I imagine someone will identify it for me!

We watched an osprey dip into the pond and try to catch a fish several times, but he was not successful while we were watching.

The osprey in the next photo was flying over our house and squawking loudly. He either has food stuck in his throat or there is something wrong with him. Either way, it is a bit disturbing.