Pre-Dorian photos

Ding Darling was scheduled to be closed today due to preparations for Hurricane Dorian. As of now, it appears that Sanibel will not receive any impact from Dorian. We are very grateful, but also send our thoughts and prayers for those who are in the path of Dorian.

Today, my photos are from a trip through Ding that I took on Thursday with a great friend of mine. The volunteer at the gate told us there had been 48 Roseate Spoonbills near the tower earlier that morning. That would have been great to see!

This Cormorant was almost too close to get a photo. Click on the photo and check out the drops of water on his chest.

My friend spotted this gator in the distance. He appears to be fairly big.

I hate when the wind destroys my hair.

If you didn’t see the wildlife cam photo of the very healthy bobcat in our backyard during daylight recently, the photo is below.

The wildlife cam also recorded a hawk with a dove in his clutches. I grouped the still photos together in a short video clip below.

Black-Necked Stilt Chick Growing

Our trip through Ding today only yielded a couple of photos, a Little Blue Heron and a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron.

Our stop at the Bailey Tract was more successful. We were treated to seeing one of the growing Black-Necked Stilt chicks up close and personal.

When you have really long legs that bend backwards so that you can scratch your chin!

We watched the little guy walk around, getting bites to eat, then he took some time to preen his feathers. His eyes were looking a bit sleepy below.

And sure enough, he tucked his beak under his wing and snoozed. I focused on the reflection because it was so clear and smooth.

And another treat . . . we saw a Little Blue Heron that has almost finished turning from the white phase to blue. I love getting to see this beautiful process. From the distance, I first thought it was a Great Blue Heron because it seemed to be too big for a Little Blue.

The Tri-Colored Heron below was running around like a Reddish Egret chasing food.

We saw another pretty Little Blue Heron on our way back to the car.

This last pic is one of my favorites from today. As we got back to the boardwalk that crosses to the parking lot, the light hit the boards just right so that we could see our damp, sandy footprints from earlier and the footprints of either raccoons or river otters. I think these are probably raccoon footprints. But, if anyone knows for sure, please feel free to leave a note in the comments!

August Birds

On a hot August Saturday morning, I didn’t expect to get more than a couple of bird photos. We were so surprised to see so many birds along Wildlife Drive. So many, in fact, it has taken a couple of days to get through all of them. I cut it down to around 45 photos. Yikes!

The Great Blue Heron has always been one of my favorites.

Snooze time . . .

We’ve seen several Little Blue Herons this year, not only in their white phase, but also in the changing-to-blue phase. I don’t know if I am getting better at recognizing them or if it’s just a good year for them. The one below is in its white phase.

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron below was making a lot of noise to get my attention, then posed for me.

The Little Blue Heron below has lost most of its white.

When you are a beautiful Tri-Colored Heron, but surrounded by even more beauty . . .

Most of the Roseate Spoonbills were tucked in and didn’t appear to plan on flying anytime soon. Then, one started pacing around and soon took off.

I’d never seen a Green Heron out in the open on the sand bar, instead of in the trees. The photos are a bit grainy, but I didn’t want to stop to change my camera settings and possibly miss getting photos of it.

We came around a bend in the drive and were again treated to a gathering of white birds. And, again, I took far too many photos! But, how can a person not do so, when getting to see a feeding frenzy?

When you want to be really big and bad, but everyone is laughing at your bad hair day, so you stomp off.

And then you get your mojo back . . . Oh, yeah!

Throwing one back!

Every eye on the prize.

You made it to the end of today’s blog!

Thank you for looking at my photos.

Rainy August Days

We had so much rain last weekend that I didn’t make it out to take any photos. It wasn’t raining this morning, so we headed to Ding. While we were there, it came a downpour, but I was able to get some photos before it started raining too hard.

I’ll start with a couple of photos of a bloom on our dragonfruit plant. We’ve only had one bloom so far this year. In the past, we’ve had many blooms on this plant. I love these blooms.

We came upon a large group of birds squawking and fishing, again, along Wildlife Drive at Ding.

When you have to suddenly put on the brakes.

Looking back at all the birds after we’d driven away.

Ok. Altogether now . . .

Time to go . . .

An osprey can be seen sitting in this tree in our neighborhood almost every day.