Travelin' Tuesday Morning!

Well my sister and I made an early start (for me but halfway through the day for her) at 7 with plans to go shelling at Lover's Key which is a small series of islands south of Ft. Myers Beach. As the park didn't open until 8 in the morning, we took a side trip first through a very small kind of private preserve on the southern end of Ft. Myers Beach. I don't know whether it has a formal name or not. We also took a circuit around the Catholic Monastery in search of the fabled scarlet ibis which has been spotted there (no, we didn't see one). What a treat!!!

This was at a small pond behind the monastery and was a series of trees with probably 25 anhingas all appearing to be females! They have the brownish necks while the males are solid black.
I believe this is a Wilson's Plover. I know it is a plover and the markings on the Kildeer which is looks most like are much stronger.

This is a Semi-Palmated Sandpiper and is bigger than the plovers.

This is the Semi-Palmated Plover. I have seen these quite often on the beach.

This is a Kildeer which is also a plover. We used to get these in our yard in Batavia, NY. They are a very noisy bird!

After wandering around this small salt water marsh where we saw all the plovers, we headed over to the beach as we saw some dolphins feeding near the shore. This was a dolphin that was pushing a school of fish up onto the beach -- he probably ended up in about six inches of water just feet from us. I hadn't even noticed the pelican in front!

This was a lovely Tri-Color Heron that we saw as we were heading back up to the car. He was in the tidal pools. They are about the same size as the Little Blue Heron but have more distinctive markings and are whitish underneath.

These are Mottled Ducks (what my sister called Florida Ducks) which are very common around here. I had seen them before but hadn't identified them.

This was a particularly nice reddish egret that we also saw in this shore area. It was a lovely side trip to say the least.

Next we headed down to Lover's Key for some shelling! It is always good there. The thermometer on the car measured 93 in the sun and we hear we set the country's record for the warmest temp! The day was glorious though and the water warm and clear.
This is my stash from collecting shells down at Lovers Key. I had to give up after two hours as I was still suffering some dehydration from the flu I had a couple of days previously. You can see conchs and olives and most of the common shells found down here! I never tire of collecting shells and neither does my sister Gail. It is in our genes for sure!!
On our way out of Lover's Key, we stopped one last time to see if we could spot manatees as I had never seen one! Gail spotted some down the way so we drove down and watched them for ten minutes! They were quite active although on the other side of the canal. Nonetheless, I did manage a few good pictures. I loved this one as he (or she) looks like a person in a back float somehow in this shot -- not a very attractive person I might add!! Some canoes came by and the manatees disappeared deep under water and out of sight. It was quite a thrill!!

I couldn't end the blog without including this picture of my elusive Belted Kingfisher. Of course he chose to come around closely again when my camera was by the pool, but not me. Luckily my dear husband had the presence of mind to take some shots. This really shows the essence of the Kingfisher -- doesn't he look fearsome?

Our Cold Wave

Well, I have turned into a Floridian as I now believe that 70 degrees is cold!! I am sitting here in my fleece so that I can stay warm! Now in all fairness, it was in the 50s when I went for my beach walk this morning!!

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.