Ding Darling - Early morning low tide

It's early, it's 7a.m. and the gates open for the Wildlife Drive at Ding Darling. First sighting - several Yellow-crowned Night Heron - the sun is just above the horizon.

Beautiful colors on the Brown Pelicans in the morning light.

White Pelicans were busy keeping their feathers in tip-top shape.

This was a typical sight this morning everywhere along the Wildlife Drive - hundreds upon hundreds of bird species....Little Blue, Reddish Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis, White Pelicans and Tri-colored Heron can be seen in this shot.

Are you looking at me?

In the thick of the mangroves - hundred of White Egrets, Snowy Egrets and Tri-colored Heron could be seen and especially heard.

YUM! I love shrimps.

I think I'll get me another.

The Blue Crab was watching the feeding frenzy and staying put without moving a claw.

Guess whose feet these are? If you said Snowy Egret - you got the prize.

I like to think of the Snowy Egret as wearing yellow slippers.

Where did the sun go? All of a sudden - a dense fog seems to hover over the wildlife drive. But wait?? What do we have here - a River Otter blending in the background, almost unnoticed.

Roseate Spoonbills making their first appearance this morning.

Flying over the Tower and heading to the sand/mud dunes.

Joining in with the others and taking advantage of the low tide.

Off to another little island - commotion could be heard.....this Laughing Gull was pretty territorial.

Oh, I see now that the White Ibis has a nice tasty morsel and since he's in Seagull territory - he's getting to hear about it....even the Ring-billed joined in.

The White Ibis got smart and made its departure.

"Geeze, okay.....I'm outta here."

Time to go to the ocean and get some diving in going.

All in all, it was a fantastic day with the 37 species that I saw and I can easily say that if I didn't have another engagement to go to, I would have spent another 2 hours and would have been able to see all the others that were present.

My E-Bird List