2014-02-05-Sanibel Island & Captiva Island, FL by...

2014-02-05-Sanibel Island & Captiva Island, FL

By ThomasCarroll235
Mar 04, 2014
69 Photos

ThomasCarroll235's Gallery

ThomasCarroll235

2014-02-05-Sanibel Island & Captiva Island, FL

Mar 04, 2014
69 Photos

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Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

White Ibis feeding in the shallows

Little Blue Heron

A Gator on the prowl

The egret seems unpreturbed by the proximity of a deadly predator

A pair of Reddish Egrets (Found only in shallow saltwater areas where they lurch through the water looking for prey)

Reddish Egret getting airborne

Reddish Egret drying out its feathers

American White Pelicans-They spend summers in Canada and upper US Midwest and winter in the south (The American White Pelican rivals the Trumpeter Swan as the longest bird native to North America. Both very large and plump, it has an overall length is about 50–70 in (130–180 cm), courtesy of the huge beak which measures 11.3–15.2 in (290–390 mm) in males and 10.3–14.2 in (260–360 mm) in females. It has a wingspan of about 95–120 in (240–300 cm).[3] The species also has the second largest average wingspan of any North American bird, after the California Condor. Body weight can range between 9.2 and 30 lb (4.2 and 13.6 kg),[4] although typically these birds average between 11 and 20 lb (5.0 and 9.1 kg). Among standard measurements, the wing chord measures 20–26.7 in (51–68 cm) and the tarsus measures 3.9–5.4 in (9.9–13.7 cm) long. The plumage is almost entirely bright white, except the black primary and secondary remiges, which are hardly visible except in flight.)

A Great Egret takes off

A Wood Stork probing the flats for food (The Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) is a large American wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was formerly called the "Wood Ibis", though it is not really an ibis. As of August 28, 2013 it is classified as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, although there have been proposals to downlist it to threatened.This is a subtropical and tropical species which breeds in much of South America, Central America and the Caribbean. The Wood Stork is the only stork that presently breeds in North America. In the United States there is a small and endangered breeding population in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, along with a recently discovered rookery in southeastern North Carolina. On the other hand, in Santa Catarina state (Brazil), its decline seems to have been reversed: after an absence between the late 1960s and the mid-1990s.)

Great Egret ascending

Great Egret ascending

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

Willets coming in for a landing (Drab grayish-brown in the winter, Willets have a striking wing pattern in flight.)

Willets on patrol

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill

Willets ands Ibis at a buffet

A Great Egret and Wood Stork on the flats

Black Bellied Plover (Sports a dramatic black belly just before migrating to nest in the high arctic tundra.)

Black Bellied Plover

Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

American White Pelicans

Lunch at the Mucky Duck Pub on Captiva Island

Lunch at the Mucky Duck Pub on Captiva Island

Lunch at the Mucky Duck Pub on Captiva Island

J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge HQ (The J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located in southwestern Florida, on Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico. It is named for the cartoonist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling. The 5200 acre (21 km2) refuge was established in 1976, to protect one of the country's largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystems. The refuge is well known for its migratory bird populations. Hurricane Charley struck the refuge on August 13, 2004, causing major changes to the topography and ecology. The J. N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of the following: the Darling Refuge itself, and the Caloosahatchee, Island Bay, Matlacha, and Pine Island National Wildlife Refuges.The northern section of the refuge is in the J.N. Ding Darling Wilderness Area, which was created in 1976 and currently protects 2,619 acres (1,060 ha) or 41% of the refuge)

J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge HQ

American White Pelicans

Sandbar flats at Ding Darling WIldlife Refuge. A favorite feeding area for wading and shore birds.

Great Blue Heron (Solitary, stately. The so called sovereign of the wading birds)

An Osprey wading.

American White Pelicans

American White Pelicans on the shimmering flats

American White Pelicans

Mangrove Tree Crab (Aratus pisonii, commonly known as the mangrove tree crab, is a species of crab which lives in mangrove trees in tropical and subtropical parts of the Americas, from Florida to Brazil on the Atlantic coast, and from Nicaragua to Peru on the Pacific coast. It feeds mostly on the leaves of the mangroves, but is an omnivore, and prefers animal matter when possible.)

Mangrove Tree Crab

American White Pelicans

A flock of Willets

Willets and White Pelicans

Great Blue Heron (center)

Osprey on alert

Sanibel Island Light (The Sanibel Island Light or Point Ybel Light[2] is the first lighthouse on Florida's Gulf coast north of Key West and the Dry Tortugas. It is located on the eastern tip of Sanibel Island, and was built to mark the entrance to San Carlos Bay for ships calling at the port of Punta Rassa, across San Carlos Bay from Sanibel Island. Residents of Sanibel Island first petitioned for a lighthouse in 1833, but no action was taken. In 1856 the Lighthouse Board recommended a lighthouse on Sanibel Island, but Congress took no action. In 1877 government workers surveyed the eastern end of the island and reserved it for a lighthouse. Congress finally appropriated funds for a lighthouse in 1883. The foundation for the new lighthouse was completed in early 1884, but the ship bringing ironwork for the tower sank two miles (3 km) from Sanibel Island. A crew of hard-hat divers from Key West recovered all but two of the pieces for the tower and ultimately it was built.)

Tom at Sanibel Island Light

Lighthouse keeper's cottage-Sanibel Island Light

Dune foliage on Sanibel Island

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