{"id":4401,"date":"2015-05-16T20:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T00:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4401"},"modified":"2015-05-17T07:28:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T11:28:45","slug":"florida-2015-sanibel-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4401","title":{"rendered":"Florida 2015 – Sanibel Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.*<\/p>\n

\"~I<\/a>
~I never really appreciated ROSEATE SPOONBILLS\u00a0<\/strong>until I saw them in person. I was really blown away, they are so much more beautiful than I ever thought. J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island was definitely my favorite\u00a0of all the birding spots I hit in southwest Florida. Like\u00a0Montezuma NWR and Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, the refuge has a Wildlife Drive.\u00a0The drive is five miles long and the birding is incredible, with many species of birds present, and they are usually\u00a0close to the road for fantastic looks. A lot of folks ride bikes through Wildlife Drive,\u00a0I think this would be an enjoyable way to experience it.\u00a0The refuge is also really pretty and if you get there early the light is super\u00a0for photographs. I made it out to the refuge two mornings\u00a0in a row, the first day I was on my own and the second day Tricia joined me – there was no way she was\u00a0going to miss out on seeing ROSEATE SPOONBILLS<\/strong>. The spoonbills surprised me in how beautiful and charismatic they were. I have, of course, seen many photos of the birds and I was never\u00a0particularly \u00a0moved, but seeing them in person changed that for sure. On the second day, after lunch we also went to Bailey Tract to go for the BLACK-NECKED STILTS<\/strong> We got really good looks at the birds, but due to the time of day the light was very harsh for photos.<\/p>\n

Over the two days I had 43 bird species and a river otter between Wildlife Drive and Bailey Tract. Ten of the bird\u00a0species\u00a0were life birds for me (although the Anhinga and Brown Pelicans I had already seen outside of the refuge).<\/p>\n

\"~A<\/a>
~A Double-crested Cormorant comes up with a small snack, J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Yellow-crowned<\/a>
Yellow-crowned Night Herons are everywhere at the refuge, I thought they were such characters. J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This was a favorite of mine, of course. A SWALLOW-TAILED KITE\u00a0<\/strong>soars overhead at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/4\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"We<\/a>
We got really great looks at several BLACK-NECKED STILTS,<\/strong> unfortunately we saw them mid-day and the light was a little harsh for photos. I found this distant photo to be more appealing. \u00a0J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge – Bailey Tract, 5\/4\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An<\/a>
An adult White Ibis does a flyby at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/4\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This young Yellow-crowned Night-heron was cracking me up. He\/she was very stealthily stalking a shell on the road. J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/4\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Roseate<\/a>
ROSEATE SPOONBILL\u00a0in flight, J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~Tricolored<\/a>
~Tricolored Heron mid-step at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~An<\/a>
~An immature Little Blue Heron takes a short flight from one pool to another at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~American<\/a>
~American White Pelican. This bird was all tucked in, to the point that you couldn’t tell it was a pelican! J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/4\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~A<\/a>
~A first summer\u00a0White Ibis feeds along the shore of one o the pools at the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/4\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One last shot of a ROSEATE SPOONBILL,\u00a0\u00a0J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, 5\/3\/15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"~Magnificent<\/a>
~MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD.\u00a0\u00a0I was thrilled to see this bird, even though it was so distant. We actually got a pretty good look at one as we drove over the bridge leaving Sanibel Island, the bird flew about 50 yards over our car; I was driving so no photos. ~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MOTTLED DUCK<\/strong>
\nPied-billed Grebe
\nMAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD<\/strong>
\nDouble-crested Cormorant
\nANHINGA<\/strong>
\nAmerican White Pelican
\nBROWN PELICAN<\/strong>
\nGreat Blue Heron
\nGreat Egret
\nSnowy Egret
\nLittle Blue Heron
\nREDDISH EGRET<\/strong>
\nGreen Heron
\nYellow-crowned Night-Heron
\nWhite Ibis
\nROSEATE SPOONBILL<\/strong>
\nOsprey
\nSWALLOW-TAILED KITE<\/strong>
\nBlack-bellied Plover
\nBLACK-NECKED STILT<\/strong>
\nSemipalmated Plover
\nKilldeer
\nWillet
\nSanderling
\nSemipalmated Sandpiper
\nLaughing Gull
\nEurasian Collared-Dove
\nCOMMON GROUND-DOVE<\/strong>
\nMourning Dove
\nRed-bellied Woodpecker
\nPileated Woodpecker
\nGreat Crested Flycatcher
\nFish Crow
\nGrey Catbird
\nAmerican Redstart
\nCAPE MAY WARBLER<\/strong>
\nNorthern Parula
\nBlackpoll Warbler
\nPrairie Warbler
\nNorthern Cardinal
\nCommon Grackle
\nBoat-tailed Grackle<\/p>\n

Nearly forgot – Tricolored Heron!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.* The\u00a0J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island was definitely my favorite\u00a0of all the birding spots I hit in southwest Florida. Like\u00a0Montezuma NWR and Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, the refuge has a Wildlife Drive.\u00a0The drive is five miles long and the birding is incredible, with many species of birds … Continue reading “Florida 2015 – Sanibel Island”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-walkingwaterbirds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-18Z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4429,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4401\/revisions\/4429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}