A beautiful day filled with sun, warmth, good company and plenty of nature to see.
The Caloosa Bird Club met this morning before 8a.m. at Bunche Beach - the moon was still in the horizon as the sun rose and the tides were super low.
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| White Pelicans approaching. |
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| Brown Pelican circling around. |
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| On the sandbar - many, many Black Skimmers. |
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| The Black Skimmers with the Sanibel Lighthouse in the background. |
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| Our group today consisted of 67 birding folks - of that, 15 were guests....one common denominator - smiles and genuine joie de vive. |
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| My attention was drifting toward the Brown Pelican......its plumage changing ever so gradually....see the eyes in pink hue, the pouch in green, the crown fuzzy yellow and the back of the neck acquiring a chocolate color - how gorgeous is that! |
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| Yum! Breakfast Fish. |
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| Great Blue Heron with the Sanibel Causeway in the background.....notice the low tide and how far you can walk....muck and all. |
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| The Osprey came swooshing by - surprising us in the process. |
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| The Black Skimmers re-positioning themselves after a walker strolled by. |
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| Ha! Several of us were looking through our spotting scope and agreeing that we were seeing 3 Black Scoters in the far distance (this BTW is south of that Causeway seen earlier), so with my camera I zoomed in and took this photo. The Duck on the right seems to have a paler head as well as a whiter breast....anyone want to venture a name for this duck? |
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| We spotted the spotless Spotted Sandpiper who was marking the spots as he went along. Another hint for his identification is that he is a solitary bird. |
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| Time for us to move to our next location. One last look toward Fort Myers Beach and the shrimp boat hard at work. |
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| We arrived at Lakes Park - paid our dues in the parking meter and shed a few layers before proceeding. The group at this point divided into two and went into different directions. |
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| Being a holiday, the place was abuzz with joggers, bikers, walkers, tourists and us. Hey....look at the scenery, who wouldn't want to be here? |
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| A Blue-headed Vireo - my nice capture for the day. There were other warblers noteworthy of photos...but too quick for me. |
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| Eastern Phoebe - busy darting from perching to bug capturing. |
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| A tricolored heron seen in the reeds - quite comfortable with our presence....not his first rodeo. |
A total of 74 species for the day.
The voted trip bird of the day was the Swallow-tailed Kite - which I didn't get to see since I was with the other group. I look forward to see the kites this year, they nested near my house last year and I hope that they will return to that same spot.....they sure are fun to watch and listen to.
What a great outing and variety of birds, I love the Black Skimmers and the Pelicans! Wonderful photos. Have a great day!
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