We took a somber drive through Ding this morning. There is such a pall hanging over the island these days. The red tide is so very bad right now and it is affecting every part of the island. There are thousands of fish, more than 100 big sea turtles, and other sea life washing up dead on the beach. There have been many Goliath Grouper over 200 lbs. and tarpon over 100 lbs. that have been removed and buried. Crews are working to remove as many of the dead sea life and animals as they can. Even in Ding, there were dead fishing floating in the water and stacked up against the water's edge. It is irritating to our eyes and breathing and the smell is pretty bad. It's the worst we've seen since we started coming to Sanibel for vacations years ago.
The Tri-Colored Heron nest just had one chick today. The volunteer at the Ding entrance told us that all 3 eggs hatched, but only one has made it to this point. It was odd that we didn't see or hear either of the parents of this chick anywhere. Maybe it was watching us from somewhere nearby, but we didn't see it. I hope they are ok and haven't ingested toxic fish or are bringing them back to the nest.