Last Weekend of August 2020

August 2020 is coming to a close and we’ll move into September, which is traditionally a very slow month on the island. It is hot, school starts back up, fewer tourists around, and some of the restaurants close for a week or two. And, of course, everyone hopes that no hurricanes will head our way.

The following photos were taken over the last couple of weeks at Ding and on the beach.

The bird below is an immature Great Blue Heron. Not quite as beautiful as a fully grown one with mating plumage. It’s still a striking bird, though!

The bird below is a Tri-Colored Heron.

You can almost always find a Reddish Egret at Ding.

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Above is an adult Yellow-Crowned Night Heron and below is a juvenile.

And what would a trip to Ding be without at least one Roseate Spoonbill photo?

Just hanging out with the buds . . .

See ya on the flip side, guys!

Practicing for the Dirty Dancing finale . . . Nailed it!

I spent the morning at the beach with a dear friend last week. I only had my phone with me to capture the beautiful cloud formations.

Just a lizard hanging out on the pool heater.

Slow Pink Day

It was a slow, hot day at Ding today. We did get to see a large group of Roseate Spoonbills (called a bowl). I believe I counted around 38 in the bowl, and most were tucked in to sleep.

The reflections were almost perfect.

When you are confident enough to strut your stuff around your peers . . .

This young Roseate Spoonbill below was the only one signaling that flight was imminent while we were there. It is so young that its eyes are not pink and legs are not dark pink. Also, it has a white feathered head. As they age, they get a bare, greenish skin on the head.

And away it went . . .

Breakfast of champions!

At the first culvert at Ding, we only saw one Roseate Spoonbill and a juvenile Tri-Colored Heron out on the sandbar.

Caption for this one: DUDE . . . she was taking my pic! You made her lens focus on you instead of me!

Caption: Yeah, well, how about I take a bite out of you for that!

(I’ve never seen this type of interaction between different birds.)

A juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night Heron was making himself very tall in the top of a tree.

And giving me a very pointed look

This crab looks a bit . . . crabby just under the water at the edge of the bridge/culvert.

Hot Summer Days

We continue to have very hot days in Southwest Florida. We are so thankful that Isaias has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is also bypassing our area.

Our drive through Ding yesterday looked as if it were going to be uneventful, but we came upon a group of Roseate Spoonbills and most of them were getting ready to take off. The photographers are always lined up trying to get good photos of them in flight. I’m sure it’s a funny thing to watch, but I’m right there with them, snapping away!

I’ll warn you ahead of time, there are a lot of photos in today’s post!

On your mark, get set . . . .

Go!!!

We have lift off . . .

If you compare the next two photos, you can see that the first one is a much younger Roseate than the second one.

The Reddish Egret below was also watching all the pink lifting off. He seems impressed, too.

My mommy said we have to social distance. It’s not much fun, though.

We stopped by the Bailey Tract. This lone Tri-Colored Heron was our only photo op.

They can certainly stretch that neck out when needed!

Back at home, the Red-bellied Woodpeckers are super busy feeding all the babies. The dad brought some sort of yellow berry treat. The male red-bellied woodpecker has more red on the head than the female.

Mama was bringing protein this morning with two different grub worms.

Mama was keeping a close eye and making sure I kept my distance.

And finally, I got to see one of the babies!! When I saw this pic, it reminded me of one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, so I’ll caption this one . . . “Are You My Mother?”

This pretty Little Blue Heron was walking between our yard and the neighbor’s yard.

We took a quick walk on the beach last week. When I look at this photo, it makes me go “aaahhhhhh”. I can feel the stress being taken away with the waves whenever I walk along the beach.

Doesn’t this look like a grumpy, old pelican? Maybe I just caught him on an “off” day.

Okay, one more beach pic . . . aaaahhhhh!!!!

And, thank you for looking at my long blog today!

Woodpecker babies in the nest

The tide was high this morning when we drove through Ding, so we didn’t see many birds. I took one photo of a Tri-Colored Heron sitting at a distance in the morning sun.

The rest of the photos were taken in our yard. The red-bellied woodpeckers that made a nest in our owl box definitely hatched some babies. We cannot see them, but it sounds like at least 3 or 4 chicks. They were keeping their mom very busy today. She brought some small berries that looks like they are probably seagrapes.

Then a worm

Then, a nice juicy bug

Then, a fat caterpillar

The bee below has his head stuck deep in the flower petals

We are being overrun with green iguanas in our backyard. The wildlife cam by the water catches pics of them all day long when they are running back and forth. They are my least favorite wildlife on the island.