Winter Florida Trip - Sanibel, FL - December 14, 2024

This was my last full day on Sanibel Island.  It's amazing how fast time flies when you are on vacation.  My parents suggested another drive through the Wildlife Drive of the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge to see what birds might be out and about today.  I never turn down an opportunity to visit a national wildlife refuge full of birds!

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelicans with a Little Blue Heron behind them and a Double-crested Cormorant on the right

Double-crested Cormorants taking off

Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorants drying their wings

Brown Pelican

Reddish Egret

Great Blue Heron and a Reddish Egret

Belted Kingfisher

Little Blue Heron

Greater Yellowlegs

Greater Yellowlegs

American White Pelicans

Mottled Ducks

Brown Pelican and a Double-crested Cormorant

Female Anhinga

Right near the restrooms, part way through the Wildlife Drive, we came across this area where the fish were jumping and hundreds of birds were perched along the shore and in trees swooping down in search of food.  The flock included Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, White Ibis, a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, a Black-crowned Night Heron, a Great Egret, a Brown Pelican, and probably others I didn't see.  The sight and sound of them is something that I can't even describe or capture with a camera so it will just have to remain in my memory.  But I did get a few great photos of the birds.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Tricolored Heron taking off with a White Ibis in the background

Tricolored Heron - Some of them are just blue-gray with the white belly but others like this one have some beautiful rust tones mixed in the feathers on their back.

Snowy Egret - I often wonder how they can manage to land and stay perched on such a thin branch so high up!

Snowy Egrets

Brown Pelican

Tricolored Heron

You can see some of the flock behind me

Black-crowned Night Heron - He was really hidden deep in the shadows of these roots.

Then as we stood there and watched, all the birds suddenly decided it was time to leave and took off so we continued down the drive.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Blue-winged Teal

Little Blue Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

After the wildlife drive, we did a little shopping at a store called Shiny Objects which sells locally made jewelry that is beautiful and affordable.  I walked out of there with two necklaces, one with a mermaid pendant and the other the waves of the sea.  Both felt really representative of my connection to the sea.

We had lunch at Rosalita's Cantina which was really good, especially the chips and salsa.  

Then we spent some time back at the hotel relaxing.  In our unit of the hotel, was this piece of Red Mangrove (pictured below).  As part of a restoration effort, this seedling, which was found on the beach at the Island Inn, is being nurtured here until it is ready to be planted out in the wild.  It's really quite cool.

Sunset was nice although by this point in the week, the breeze had died down enough that we were getting eaten a bit by no-see-ums.  As I finalize this blog, there are still red bite marks all over my legs and even hands!