Visit to Little Estero

Little Estero is a small pond area (tidal) down at the south end of Ft. Myers Beach. Gail and I headed down bright and early on a beautiful Friday morning as we usually see all the different plovers here. Imagine our surprise when we came upon three Roseate Spoonbills who let us get fairly close. They were juveniles and didn't have their bright yellow heads yet but they certainly were pretty in pink!

Here is a feisty Snowy Egret behind a

nice Tri-Colored Heron. We also saw a lone wood stork. We have never seen the wood storks or spoonbills here. There were lots of the usual egrets as well.

This is the Tri-Color strolling through the pond.

These fighting conchs were all over the beach -- mostly alive. I am no longer tempted to pick up the empty ones as I have far too many!

This was a particularly attractive pair of pelicans sitting on some dead branches overlooking the beach.

This was a real nice sighting for me -- a juvenile American Oystercatcher, a bird I had not seen before. He lingered about four feet from us for a very long time and a 100 pictures later....

This was also another bird I had not seen before -- a Piping Plover with his little snub bill.

Later in the day and with no camera, we headed to Sanibel for dinner and amazingly saw two Crested Caracaras very close to the bridge!! They looked like black and white vultures to me. We went to eat in a restaurant called Doc Ford's which is owned by author Randy Wayne White. I have read all the books as they are mysteries which feature southwest Florida. Who should be sitting in the table behind us but Randy Wayne White who graciously posed with us and thanked us for reading all his books!! All I have is rotten cell pictures though! It was the end of a fantastic two weeks enjoyed with my sister and her wonderful husband (who also fed us almost every night as he loves to cook).