From Moon to Sun to Duck and Gators - oh my!

It's a brand new day and I have free time - the full "Pink Moon" is also calling me - so off I go....

I made my way to my neighborhood beach and arrived on time to see the full moon in all its glory only to be blessed with....

a brand new spectacular sunrise on the horizon - I ask you: "Is there a better way to start the day?" and I say: "I think not".

Of course it also happens to be Easter week and look at the amount of people out on the beach at 7:00 in the morning! I'll leave it to your imagination as to how busy it gets come 10-11 o'clock.....if you didn't get a parking spot by then - you're out of luck.

Okay, enough about people - especially since I came over to observe nature and the beautiful world as it wakes up - This Black-bellied Plover is getting quite colorful as the season approaches.

And the regular Snowy Plovers were busy chasing bugs and staying out of people's way. Shortly after I left to investigate a recent sighting at the Sanibel Garden preserve....

I was quite delighted to see that it was still here - a male Northern Shoveler in the company of Black-necked Stilt.

Flying above my head I spotted an Osprey carrying more nesting material.

Back to this breathtaking Shoveler - my photos does not do it justice - my position and the sun was not conducive for optimal colorful photo and I wasn't about to get in that water where the gators live - no thank you.

How often do you see those two together?

This pair of Black-necked Stilts made this day even more special.

A pair of Killdeer tends to hang out there too and I suspect they might have started the family ritual.

Up on the tower - this Black Vulture kept its eyes on anything that moved - probably waiting for something to stop moving - if you catch my drift.

A young Gator was savoring something while sporting an evil looking grin.

In the meantime I'm thinking and hoping that this Black-necked Stilt pair will be successful this year.

Well, time is rushing away from me once again and the 'errands' are calling - on my way out I counted the young gators - all 12 of them....given the law of averages, they should prosper to a long life.

Banded birds at the beach

It's officially the start of the Snowy Plover nesting season - so, off I go to the Gulfside Park beach to check things out.

Some of the Snowy Plovers have been banded, this particular lady got her blings as an adult in 2009 in Sanibel.

This little fellow was banded just recently on the East End of Sanibel.

This area of the beach had 8 Snowy Plover, this one is not banded.

Another banded Snowy Plover - this one got its bands last month around the Lighthouse of Sanibel.

My friend Elaine is admiring this beach art which was done on the edge of the roped off area for the Snowy Plovers.

Nearby - a Lesser Black-backed Gull is spotted.

No wonder Sanibel is known as the seashell capital of the world.

Within the shells - treasure can be found such as this Spider crab which looked comical with its two barnacles on its back.

A Red Knot! It liked to hang out with the Willets.

Kites are not my favorite since they look like a predator to the beach birds - but this one, being a sea turtle, I make an exception.

Then we saw some Sanderlings that were also banded....

the only information I have so far is that Sanderlings are banded in Canada - who knew that they came from my country! Oh Canada!

All in all, I'd say it was a great day revisiting the Snowy Plover - I look forward to another season with the hopes of successful fledglings.

Sanibel West

A visit to the west end of the island today proved to be a rewarding and exciting experience....come along and see....

As we braved the gusty winds we marveled at the fact that the birds were able to stand still in the face of such power - heck, we had trouble walking and we are a lot bigger.

We directed our attention to the bird's features - this Caspian Tern for example and the difference that sets them apart from the Royal Tern....

the bill size/color/shape and I also noticed how the black cap reaches the edge of the bill on the Caspian - not so with the Royal.

As we looked back - we could see the blowing sand that we had felt on our skin - the salt air is very thick too, making our glasses/binos unclear to see through.

A bunch of Red Knots were hunkered down together - it's a group effort to shield one another.

The Snowy Plovers were not in large numbers but they too managed to find a clump of grass to shield them from the gusty winds.

When the wind increased even more, we decided to go to Blind Pass and perhaps catch sight of Northern Gannetts - instead we were greeted by the Sanibel Stoopers looking for shells....it looked like so much fun that we actually joined them for a while - had a blast doing it.

We then visited the pass and found this large group of Willet....

and mixed in were some Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones

and when we looked closely - we noticed some different plumage in the group....which turned out to be a couple Marbled Godwits

A few Dunlins were in the mix too...

and a few young Brown Pelicans.

Our last sighting was a Snowy Egret which was quite busy chasing bugs that were invisible from our human eyes - we enjoyed watching this bird as it crouched down low with quiet agility.....wishing we could do it too.