Power Shelling!

We had some ferocious winds and waves yesterday in Ft. Myers so my sister and I decided that a trip to Lovers Key to go shelling was in order so bright and early....

Of course since we were shelling, we decided we shouldn't bring our cameras which is always a huge mistake. Of course as we walked over to the beach, we saw two Roseate Spoonbills that were literally feet away from us. Gail scurried back to the car to get the cameras while I kept the "tourists" quiet as they crossed the bridge. The two spoonbills moved on but not far enough away that we couldn't at least get some pictures. We had originally planned to go to Ding Darling this morning just to see these magnificent birds. No trip to Ft. Myers Beach is complete without a couple of pictures of these birds! In this shot, they were heading into the mangroves and they completely disappeared from sight a few minutes later.


Later after we went shelling (and did pretty well at that), we stopped by another pond and found two more spoonbills. The one on the right is the more mature with the red on the top of the wing. The other is probably a more juvenile version.

This was the resident osprey who was nest building while we were there.

Now, these strange shapes were in the shallows of the low tidal area. They were very symmetrical in shape and I suspect they are some sort of anemone but don't know this for a fact. The varied colors seem to support the idea though.

Imagine my surprise when I walked out to sit by the pool and saw this scene -- a turkey vulture hanging out with the Great Blue that seems to frequent the back yard!

Here is a closeup of the buzzard. If you double click you can see quite a bit of facial detail but he is still a little spooky looking!!