We didn’t see many birds on our drive through Ding Wildlife Refuge today. It was overcast and the no-see-ums were pretty bad. I added a photo of an osprey and a couple of the eagles in the nest from a few days ago, to round out the pics.
We saw lots of different birds over the weekend! It’s great to see them at Ding, the Bailey Tract, and at the beach, catching fish and enjoying getting back to normal.
I think I’ll caption the next picture . . .
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”
Along Wildlife Drive at Ding, we were treated to watching several manatee very near the shoreline. The sun was coming up directly behind them, so getting photos was difficult in the harsh light. It was super cool to watch, though!
I always get this look from an Osprey!
At Bailey Tract, we saw these little Kildeer birds. They are very common, but are such cute little birds.
This Tri-colored Heron caught a fish in the early morning sun at the Bailey Tract.
Look at the photo below of the fish going down his throat.
We saw a small two-foot long gator when we first got to the Bailey Tract. I didn’t stop to check my camera settings and took this spooky underexposed Halloween photo below by mistake. You can click on the photo to enlarge it to get a better look. I love the way the sun lit up the outline of his eyes.
Here’s what he really looked like.
We had a quick trip to the beach. it was great to see clearer water and birds fishing! However, the No-See-Ums were just about the worst we’ve ever experienced. They were swarming us without mercy!
It was a morning of wildlife! I got to see the eagles working on their nest again. I watched a hawk chase a bunch of doves and then rest in a tree after he missed them. And there’s an osprey hanging around in the trees near the nest in our neighbor’s backyard. I had my camera to catch those, but I didn’t have my camera when a large coyote ran across the street about 50 feet or so in front of me this morning! Luckily, he didn’t even look my way.
The pair of eagles were sitting in a dead tree where I could get closer photos today. As I watched, both flew down, snapped off limbs in mid-air and took them back to the nest. I managed to get photos of one of them in the process.
He had to dive downward to snap the branch off.
Then, off to the nest with the branch!
This hawk was across the street from our house.
And off he goes to try, again, to get some breakfast!
We hope this osprey is keeping an eye on the nest to make it his own soon!