Tri-Colored Chick, Spoonbills, and more

We finally had a chance to see the Tri-Colored Heron chick. There are twigs in the way, but you can still get a good look at the little one.

The resident Green Heron at the boardwalk didn’t disappoint and posed very nicely.

We watched this Pileated Woodpecker for a couple of minutes. He was calling out while many Ibis were flying overhead making sounds. The ospreys were squawking and there were lots of bird noises. Just as I dropped my camera to look around, a hawk almost grabbed this woodpecker, but he managed to get away. I missed a good shot, too!

The little Fiddler Crab below wasn’t much bigger than my thumb. We must have seen hundreds of them along Wildlife Drive today.

We were treated to several Roseate Spoonbills along Wildlife Drive again. This one came in for a landing while we watched. I love the angel wings look.

This partial rainbow was above the Roseate Spoonbills as we drove up.

There were a few of the Spoonbills busy taking a bath. They looked like they were having too much fun! I took way too many photos of them doing this (of course).

To shorten the page, I’ll put the rest of the Spoonbills on the carousel below.

Then we made a quick stop at the Bailey Tract. The Osprey below was circling above the water.

By the time we got over near the pond, he had caught a fish and landed on the top of a dead tree.

There was one Black-Necked Stilt. It looked a bit lonely.

The sunset over the lake behind our house was beautiful last night. It almost looked like a painting.

Bowl of Spoonbills

The nests didn’t yield many pics this week. The Tri-colored heron nest is in a spot where the adult can been seen, but the babies are hidden. Maybe as they get bigger, I will be able to get some photos.

The three Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chicks were settled in a way that I could not get photos. I did get one pic of the Yellow-Crowned nest that is a good distance away. These two look as if they will be leaving the nest before long.

The two female Anhinga chicks are staying around near the nest. They’ve grown so much since early May when they hatched.

We saw an Ibis standing on what appeared to be the beginning of a nest in a tree near the Indigo Trail. Another Ibis was sitting on a nearby branch. It dawned on me that I’d never seen an Ibis nest. We’ll watch to see if that is what these two were up to.

Along Wildlife Drive, we were treated to a large group of spoonbills, also known as a “bowl” of spoonbills. I counted at least 32 of them, along with a brown pelican and some other birds.

The young spoonbill on the right still has the dark eyes and black along the edge of the wing. The differences between the two are more apparent with them side by side.

I’m sure there’s a great caption for the photo below! The one on the left seems to be amazed at the take-off of the other one.

The Reddish Egret below was standing off to the side for a while. Then it became very excited and caught several fish.

I think the one below should be captioned, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” He continued to run back and forth in front of the spoonbills, stopping to gobble a fish every chance he got.

These last three pics are of birds in the sky at a far distance, but I wanted to share the photos anyway. The first one I “think” is a Little Blue Heron starting to turn blue. The legs are green, so that’s my only clue. I’m sure Hugh will let me know if I’m wrong! The wings were striking, though. I wish it had been closer.

There were several Magnificent Frigatebirds flying high overhead. I always get excited when I see them. They are so big. Their wingspan can be 7 to 8 ft. across They can fly without landing for weeks, dipping down and skimming the water to get fish to eat. These were too high for me to get good pics, but I thought I’d share them anyway.

Misty Monday

It’s a misty, rainy Monday, but that’s ok. We really need the rain here. I know other parts of the country would gladly have it stop raining for a while. The month of May in Southwest Florida has been extremely dry, but it appears our rainy season has arrived.

Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend. The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest was down to 3 chicks, as expected. But, they are getting big!

One of the parents landed near the nest for feeding time.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron doesn’t put the food into the chick’s mouth. They regurgitate the food into the nest and its every chick for itself.

The Tri-Colored Heron never stood up so that we could see if the chicks had hatched. Maybe we will get a look into the nest next time.

The juvenile Anhinga below was sitting in the top of a tree nearby.

The juvenile Green Heron below was hard to see since it blended into the surroundings.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron chick below is from a different nest. It’s a bit older than the ones in the first nest.

A Yellow-Crowned Night Heron greeter at the Ding entrance.

Below is the first juvenile Wood Stork I’ve seen. The lighter beak indicates a juvenile. You never know what you will come across along Wildlife Drive.

And it was in good company.

Back at home, we watched a drama play out on our back deck. The snake below is either a Black Racer or a Black Rat Snake (I think it is a Black Racer, but does it really matter?) that was trying to find a frog that was hiding on the top of the post on the deck. The snake tracked the frog all over until it finally located it. Once the snake was close, the frog jumped across the top of the deck railing to the other end of the deck.

Nope, not on the chair.

Following the trail up the deck railing.

Checking every crack and crevice.

Meanwhile the frog sat very still and confident, but kept an eye on the snake.

Safe at the opposite end of the deck, the frog stayed in this exact position below for at least 3 hours before it got too dark to see it. The frog was gone the next morning, so we aren’t sure of its fate.

Happy Father's Day 2019

We started out the day yesterday with an unusual and beautiful sunrise. I hoped it was a sign for a good morning at Ding. And it was! The only issue was that I took hundreds of photos that took me all day to go through yesterday. I finally cut that down to 40 photos, so I will spare you and only post some of them today and the rest tomorrow!

Happy Father’s Day to dads everywhere.

The nesting update will be in the photos that I post tomorrow. All of the photos today were from one spot on Wildlife Drive at Ding, where there were probably 100 birds of several different species. They were all squawking, feeding, and flying back and forth. We have been lucky to happen upon this type of gathering a few times. It is always an amazing experience and a sight to behold.

Just in this one photo, there are Ibis, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, and Little Blue Heron.

There were so many birds, some were in the bright sunlight and some in the shaded area. The water caught the reflections of the birds, the trees, or the sky, depending on where they were standing. I didn’t know where to look and which photos to capture!

I love the reflection of the LIttle Egret in the photo below.

There must have been a large school of small fish in this area. The Little Egrets would fly across, dragging their feet, dip their beak in the water and come up with a small fish. The rest of the birds seemed content to be fishing along the edge or just basking in the sun.

The video below was the only one that I could get where no one was talking loudly beside me. It’s a terrible video, but at least you can hear some of the bird squawking that was going on. The official Ding Darling FaceBook page has a much better video showing the birds at this spot yesterday.

Looks like the fish was missed on this pass. Not for lack of trying though.

Some of these photos will look similar. I took so many of the Little Egrets skimming across the water and grabbing the small fish. It was just so fascinating.

The next two are the same bird, but just in different poses and lighting.

The photo below goes against the rules for photo composure. The subject should be coming into the photo, not leaving, but I like the trail of disturbed water from the Little Egret dragging its feet across the surface, after catching a fish.

Scouting for the next snack.