The beach walk was totally awesome this morning. We had quite a wind storm when the weather went through yesterday and part of the preceding day. The tide was excessively high yesterday morning and it was so windy I only took about half my usual four miles. I made up for it this morning as I was gone three hours walking my usual four miles but picking up tons and tons of shells. The bag was actually heavy by the time I got back to the apartment! Warren was impatiently waiting as he wanted to get to the library to do internet.
There were all sorts of things on the beach this morning besides the shells -- sea urchins, squid (alive and dead), starfish and all sorts of interesting sea weeds. I loved it. People were talking to each other asking what each other had seen. The nice thing about Ft.Myers Beach is that people don't realize what a good shelling beach it is so there are very few people out in the early morning -- the only time I can go for long walks -- before I take my blood pressure medicine!!
I found several shells that were either the largest I have found of that particular species or were the only ones I have found down there. Will try to take some pictures after I get them cleaned up. I did find one whole sea urchin shell as well which is unusual. There were a lot of the live animals as well -- very cool.
Anyway, I did get some pictures from Sanibel and Lovers Key on the computer which I will include here.
These are called Black Skimmers and they are my favorite "shore" bird. I love the bright red. We see these as we walk over to the beach but not all the time. Mostly we see dunwits, royal terns and laughing gulls with a few sanderlings thrown in for good luck.
This is the one and only American Crocodile at "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel. There was a large crowd and a naturalist there talking about it. They have tried to move here where there are more but she keeps coming back.
These are some of the White Pelicans we saw on Sanibel. They migrate from Washington state each year and are huge. You can see any of the pictures larger by double clicking on them.
HOpefully this is one of the better pictures of the Roseate Spoonbills we saw at Lover's Key. I will post all my better pictures when I get home and can go through them more easily. I LOVE the roseate spoonbills. They are such an unlikely bird. Hopefully you can see their bright shocking pink color and their very interesting bills in this picture!
Just for a change of pace, this is the completed Lady of the Lake top for those of you who have seen me drag it to sew on whenever I am filling time. It is awfully busy but I thought the sashing was interesting. I reversed the colors on everything which is the LOL pattern.
Love the photos.
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