Pink on a hot day!

A quick drive through Ding this morning yielded lots of views of pink feathers . . . some of my very favorite.  Did you know that the Roseate Spoonbill was virtually eliminated from the United States during the late 1800's, mostly due to plume hunters.  The hunters wanted their beautiful pink feathers for fans and hats.

As a Roseate Spoonbill matures, they become more pink.  Their head also gets more bald!  Hmmmm . . . 

These were the most that grouped together while I was there.  Someone said there were a couple dozen Spoonbills here a short while earlier.  These were finishing up with their grooming and flew away one at a time.  It gave all of us a chance to grab some photos of them flying.

I took a short video of the Spoonbills grooming.

This Great Egret was fishing and then bringing his meal to the sand bar.

This Fiddler Crab has a really crabby face!!

On a trip to Lighthouse beach a few days ago, I was able to grab a couple of photos.  You can see the Osprey perched on the opposite side of the lighthouse.

The Osprey stayed until we walked around to the opposite side of the lighthouse.

These two Brown Pelicans were sitting on top of the cover over fisherman's pier.

It was fun to watch this Brown Pelican catching fish under the pier.

See!  I ate the whole thing!!

This big guy was booking along and grazing through the beach grass.