In the fall of 2006, I assigned myself the task of photographing all the birds in the heron family, over 60 species of birds. I look forward to the travels in the coming years to achieve my goal. I chose southern Florida as my first stop since it is home to about a dozen species of herons, and they're pretty accessible. Plus, southern Florida boasts two morphs of the Great Blue Heron known as the Great White Heron and Wurdemann's Heron.

(...continued from Part Two.)

On Saturday, Carol and I were headed for Sanibel Island, home of J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The park opens at 7:30, so we started on our way around 6:45, making a quick stop at Dunkin' Donuts. Carol brags about their coffee, and since we don't have any Dunkin' Donuts in California, we had to make the stop. It's times like these that I wish I could appreciate a good cup of coffee. I used to drink a lot of it in years past, but decided one day to give it up cold turkey. If I had a cup these days, my photos would look like they've been double exposed.

Sanibel Island is a subtropical barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. J.N. "Ding" Darling NWR is named after Jay Norwood Darling (1876–1962), a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist and conservationist who played a key part in President Eisenhower's Executive Order to create the refuge in 1945. J.N. "Ding" Darling NWR is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States, and its 6300+ acres provides important feeding, nesting, and roosting grounds for over 220 species of birds.

We arrived at the refuge shortly after it opened at 7:30. It was about 70 degrees, the sky was clear, and there was a slight breeze. Moments after passing through the entrance to Wildlife Drive, we made our first stop. The tide was coming in and filling an area to the left of the road. A few Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, and Willet hung out on a little island. Further out, near the mangrove trees, we counted White Ibis, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, and Great Blue Heron. We heard some loud grunting squawks, and as we looked to our right, a Little Blue Heron flew from the trees and right over us. To the left were Short-billed Dowitcher prodding. As we talked to a few birders from South Carolina, one of them pointed out a Spotted Sandpiper and got it in the scope for a good view. A Reddish Egret (thr first one of the trip!) flew in to feed. It was really entertaining to watch, as it would stop for a brief moment, spot a fish, and then take off running after it. After 10 or 15 yards it would stop again and look around. The heron kept repeating this, sometimes with a flap or two of the wings, acting like it was going to take off, but then it stop again. Occasionally it was successful, but it seemed like the effort-to-eat ratio was high compared to its relatives. The neck feathers of most egrets and herons (at least in the US) are fairly short, but those on the Reddish Egret appear longer, and sometimes look like a mane.

We continued around the bend and hit the next clearing. It was a much larger area, with a different selection of birds. We added Red-breasted Merganser, Dunlin, Killdeer, Marbled Godwit, Anhinga, Brown Pelican, and American White Pelican. As I scanned the treeline with the scope, I caught sight of a few Roseate Spoonbills. This was another bird we looking forward to seeing. They were a little too far to get the fine details, let alone photos of, but it was good to at least see them.

Intermittently along the road there would be little stretches of water with small groups of birds feeding. At one place, we were able to watch four Pied-Billed Grebes as they cruised around, occasionally diving for some grub. At another area, a White Ibis and Little Blue Heron were looking for food, when a Snowy Egret came flying in and bullied his way around. A Black-crowned Night-Heron sat tucked into the mangroves and watched the melee. The trees on the side of the road were often dense. We heard a Red-shouldered Hawk call, and as it got louder, we were able to spot it though a brief opening.

We stopped at a marked scenic spot and walked the boardwalk into some trees and onto a platform overlooking a beautiful view of mangrove trees. The water below looked only a couple of feet deep. With the exception of a Black Vulture, we didn't see any birds. As we walked back toward the car, a Great Egret flew toward us and landed in a tree about 10 feet away. Trying my best not to scare it away, I was able to set the tripod down and snap off a few shots. It hung around for about 5 minutes until it got bored and took off. It was awesome to see this big bird so close!

As we continued on Wildlife Drive, listening and looking, but the dense trees along the side of the road left most of the birds with their privacy. We did, however, manage to spot a nesting Osprey. Toward the end of the loop, a few people were stopped, intently looking into the trees. We pulled over to see what they were looking at. Through a small opening, we could see a few perched Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. A few of us had cameras, so we adjusted ourselves for just the right angle, and when we were satisfied with a shot, let someone else hop in our place. That turned out to be pretty much the end of the loop. It was around noon, and Carol and I were getting hungry, so we headed back to the visitor's center to eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The "Ding" Darling visitor's center is really nice. There's a help desk just as you walk in with park staff to answer questions and hand out maps and lists. Several displays explain the history and ecosystem of the refuge. The office and desk of Darling himself, along with a video of the man, really help in appreciating what he was able to accomplish. In addition to being a key figure in the purchase of the land on Sanibel Island, Darling was chief of the US Biological Survey, the forerunner of the US Fish and Wilidlife Service. He pushed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act through Congress and sketched the first stamp. Since the stamp was introduced in 1934, more than 119 million stamps have been sold nationwide, resulting in over $671 million raised for habitat conservation. According to the J.N. "Ding" Darling Foundation website, "Adjusted for inflation, the amount raised exceeds two billion dollars." For every dollar in stamps sold, ninety-eight cents goes toward the purchase of habitat in the National Wildlife Refuge system. Details by US state.

After our short break, Carol and I hit Wildlife Drive again. This time, it was getting close to high-tide, and many of the birds we'd seen in the morning were gone. We managed to see our first Double-crested Cormorant of the day, bathing itself and then swimming over to a log sticking out of the water so it could climb on it and spread its wings to dry out. We also added Royal Tern. With the absence of birds, our trip through the refuge went much quicker. We stopped at the place where we'd spotted the Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. They were still there, and we watched them for about a half-hour. The birds were mostly in shade, but the slight breezes helped move the branches to get the small trickles of sunlight in just the right places.

J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place. I highly recommend it and look forward to visiting again in the future.

(Continue to Part Four)

It's been a while since Beakspeak has had anything to submit to the wonderful carnival that is I and the Bird. The recent trip to Florida has resulted in a few trip reports (so far), thus providing material to contribute. "I and the Bird #47 - It's all about the Bird" is hosted by Bell Tower Birding. Don't miss the post, as Jochen discusses the many facets of the "Blog Bird".

If you'd like to participate in or host an upcoming episode of "I and the Bird" yourself, make sure to check out the "I and the Bird" info page. The deadline for submissions for the next carnival is May 1.

In the fall of 2006, I assigned myself the task of photographing all the birds in the heron family, over 60 species of birds. I look forward to the travels in the coming years to achieve my goal. I chose southern Florida as my first stop since it is home to about a dozen species of herons, and they're pretty accessible. Plus, southern Florida boasts two morphs of the Great Blue Heron known as the Great White Heron and Wurdemann's Heron.

(...continued from Part One.)

After a night's rest, Carol and I were once again ready for some birds. We'd allowed ourselves to sleep in a little, so we hit the road around 9am, heading down the 75 toward Naples and Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Mini forests lined the sides of the highway. It was great to see all the trees, but the "For Sale" signs in front of them indicated that they may be replaced by a shopping center or housing development next time I come through. Traffic wasn't too bad between Fort Myers and Naples, and Great Egrets often enjoyed the same corridor, parallelling the highway to get to their destinations.

We exited Immokalee Road and headed east toward Corkscrew. After a few miles, Immokalee curved north. Along the side of the road were egrets just wandering around. In the sky were a few vultures. And then we caught sight something extra special: a Swallow-tailed Kite. I'd read a bit about these birds in "Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-Tailed Kites" by Susan Cerulean. In this book, Cerulean explains her infatuation with the bird, documents the years of research she performed on the raptor, and laments the destruction of its habitat due to development. I enjoyed the book, as did Carol, so it had extra meaning to finally see a Swallow-tailed Kite. It circled a few times and continued on.

When we arrived at the Blair Audubon Center at Corkscrew around 10am, it was partly cloudy, around 70 degrees, and calm. We paid our admission fee and continued on to the boardwalk and into pine flatwood habitat, where we watched as a Downy Woodpecker flew in. It knocked on a tree for a few minutes and took off. A Red-shouldered Hawk flew in and stopped for a brief moment on a dead tree before taking back to the air.

We continued on to wet prairie habitat. Well, it wasn't really wet at this time of year, but it must be quite a sight when it is. This is an interesting patch on the boardwalk, with pine flatwood on one side, and pond cypress on the other. We stopped briefly at Sawgrass Pond. A few people were looking intently toward one side of the walk. A docent explained that Painted Buntings often stop by a feeder there. After 30 minutes we'd managed to see some Yellow-rumped Warblers, White-eyed Vireos, and a resting Eastern Gray Squirrel, but no Painted Bunting. We advanced up the path, where we saw a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher flittering around. Shortly thereafter, we came to a sign. One way pointed to a marsh overlook, the other to lettuce lakes. Hmmm...which way? Someone walking by helped make the decision by mentioning the herons and storks at the lettuce lakes. And what a choice it was!

Since it's been so dry, much of the water is concentrated in a few small areas. This makes it a little easier to find the birds since they congregate where their food is...in the water. I was awed at the sight of arriving at the lettuce lakes. There were birds everywhere, and all within 20-30 feet of me! There must have been about 30 Wood Storks roosting in the trees and feeding, White Ibises poked around in the water, and Anhingas sunned themselves. I was especially elated to see all the herons. There were Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, and Black-crowned Night-Heron. I noted the absence of the Snowy Egret to a docent, and he mentioned that they don't usually come around. He also mentioned that there are usually Yellow-crowned Night-Herons there, but since it was nesting season for them, they were hiding away on nests. The Great Egret and Great Blue Heron were pretty much solitary feeders, standing still while waiting for something to swim by. Tricolored Herons waded around a little. The Little Blue Herons made boisterous entrances and exits. Black-crowned Night-Herons stayed mostly perched, some on lower branches near the water. The method of feeding for the Wood Stork was interesting; with their beaks half submerged in the water, they take a slow step forward and stir up the water with their stepping foot. Some times they'll quickly stretch out a wing. And an amazing part of this was that there was an American Alligator slowly moseying around, occasionally coming up with a turtle or some similar food. The birds kept a little distance from the alligator, but they weren't too concerned as the alligator was more focused on finding an easier meal on the bottom of the pond.

Carol decided to check out the outlook at the marsh to see if she could spot another Swallow-tailed Kite. I was so intent on all the birds at the lettuce lakes, I completely lost track of time. It wasn't until she caught back up with me at 1:30, that I realized I was getting hungry. We started back toward the nature center, but ran into another slightly larger lake. Here, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron sat perched and allowed me to get some shots. A young alligator sat on a little log sunning itself. A female Belted Kingfisher alerted us to her presence as she landed in a tree about 20 yards away. We noticed that she was holding a fish in her beak. The fish was a little too big swallow, so she kept beating the fish on the branch. Birds will do this to catfish to break off the bony spikes, but this was no catfish, it was just too big to handle. I got some shots and managed to get some video through my digiscoping setup. The video is a little jiggly because of the people walking by, but still fun to watch. To watch it, you must have QuickTime installed.

After about a half hour, we decided to continue on. My stomach was really starting to growl at me. Forget hunger though, shortly up the path, a docent pointed out a Barred Owl that sat perched about 20 yards through the trees. It was slightly blocked by some branches, but I took some shots anyway.

As I left the pond cypress and entered into the wet prairie clearing, looked up and saw Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures, and another Swallow-tailed Kite. The kite made a quick circle and headed back behind the tree line. As we approached the nature center, we caught sight of Northern Cardinal, Common Grackle, and Boat-tailed Grackle.

As Carol and I picked something out at the nature center's food counter, the attendant described a little grey bird with a black cap that keeps visiting the patio. As I opened my field guide to show her a likely picture, a Grey Catbird landed on the outside railing. Sure enough, she had been making friends with a Gray Catbird. The sanctuary closed at 4:30, and by the time we finished eating, it was too late to go back out. It had been an awesome visit and I was thrilled at all the birds I'd seen!

On our way back to Fort Myers, we decided to take the part of the Tamiami Trail that we had passed up the day before in favor of the quicker 75 route. About 15 minutes before our motel, we passed by a Famous Dave's restaurant. I'd eaten at the one in Lincoln, Nebraska a few times and found it to have excellent barbecue. After dropping our stuff off at the motel, we headed back to Dave's. What a satisfying way to end such an exciting day!

(Continue to Part Three)

In the Fall of 2006, I assigned myself the task of photographing all the birds in the heron family, over 60 species of birds. I look forward to the travels in the coming years to achieve my goal. I chose southern Florida as my first stop since it is home to about a dozen species of herons, and they're pretty accessible. Plus, southern Florida boasts two morphs of the Great Blue Heron known as the Great White Heron and Wurdemann's Heron.

It was raining when Carol and I arrived in Miami at 5:30am on March 22. A few minutes after we got to the car rental place at 7am the downpour really set in. This wasn't like the rain in Los Angeles where the news proclaims "Storm Watch" when we experience a little drizzle. This was the kind of rain where every part of you is drenched in 10 seconds or less. You might as well just jump into a pool. The locals welcomed it since it had been a really dry winter in Florida. My sense of direction was completely turned around...it was raining and still dark, and with the storm, the sun wouldn't be providing hints any time too soon. The kind ladies at the car rental place gave us a map and pointed us in the right direction. When the rain let up for just a moment, we stuffed our luggage in the trunk and took off.

I've heard that when it rains in Florida, it's usually for 20 minutes and then it's sunny. Apparently the weatherman hadn't heard the same story and forgot to turn off the faucet. Nevertheless, it was actually refresing to experience a "real" rain. The rains that accompany El Nino in Los Angeles can be pretty heavy, but the experiences with those aren't as enjoyable since I'm usually on my way to work. I digress.

The check-in time for the motel at our first destination of Fort Myers was 1pm, so we knew we would have some time to spend. Rather than taking Interstate 75 (Alligator Alley) to our destination, we decided to take the more scenic Tamiami Trail. It runs on the north side of the Everglades National Park and through Big Cypress National Preserve, which was dedicated in 1974 as one of the first national preserves within the National Park Service. The critically endangered Florida Panther, a great diversity of birds, and many other creatures make their homes in the swamp land and ancient bald cypress trees of Big Cypress.

After getting out of the urban setting, we were able to pay more attention to the sky and vegetation. The south side of the road was lined with small trees and brush. Occasionally, I was able to catch some glimpses of white through the patches, enough to determine they were egrets. On the north side of the road was fairly open, with a canal running next to the road. It wasn't long and we'd identified our first new lifer of the trip...the Anhinga. A few flew two feet over the water, others were perched on power lines. We'd also seen various black birds on the side of the road, most likely grackles and crows. Vultures sporadically flew over.

On the Big Cypress map (PDF) I'd downloaded, I noticed a scenic trail called Loop Road. Since the map marked the road as unpaved (and it was still raining heavily), we continued to the Oasis Visitor Center for more information. When we arrived at the visitor center around 8:45, the rain had subsided a bit. We got a good look at another lifer, a Black Vulture, as it flew in and landed on a light post right next to our car and looked at us. Though we hadn't showered since the day before, I didn't think we smelled that bad.

After asking the nice folks at the visitor center about the condition of Loop Road, we figured we'd head back the 12 miles to the east entrance. On our way, we looked north for a Snail Kite, but no luck. The rain started to pick up again. Loop Road is a 26-mile path through wetland cypress habitat, with occasional clearings where the water is allowed to flow from the north to the south through the Everglades. Shortly after we started in, I spotted a Wood Stork. We'd seen them at the Salton Sea in the summer, but they're really skittish. This bird was about 20 yards from our car and didn't really seem to care that we were watching it as it fed. After a few minutes, we continued on. Each of the clearings that followed seem to provide its own set of gems. At one stop, we saw our first alligator. At the next clearing, a Tricolored Heron was just minding its own business when a Snowy Egret flew in and decided it wanted the Tricolored's perch. Another stop produced a Great Blue Heron all the way up to its belly in mucky water. I'd never seen a GBH in water that deep! Toward the end of the trail, we talked to two women that had driven from Miami for the day. They had noticed a bird in the brush on the side of the road, but didn't know what it was. It was well hidden, and I never would have noticed it if it wasn't for them. After a few minutes we relocated the bird....a Black-crowned Night-Heron. On Loop Road, we managed to see a total of seven different species of herons: Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Green Heron, and Black-crowned Night-Heron! Also noted were Anhinga, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Bald Eagle, Purple Gallinule, and Belted Kingfisher.

It was almost noon, so we figured we'd head toward the 75 and continue up to Fort Myers. We decided to take Turner River Road, another scenic trail. There were alligators scattered all along the canal at the east side of the road.

A couple of miles up the gravel road, we saw some Black Vultures feeding on the side of the road. I stopped the car to observe, and they didn't seem to care that we were even there. One even modeled for us. We continued north, adding Northern Harrier, Osprey, and Red-shouldered Hawk. We continued until we arrived at the 75. Since there was no on-ramp, we turned around and headed back toward the 41 so we could catch a road that would hook us up with the 75 and on to Fort Myers.

When we hit our motel room in Fort Myers at around 3:30pm, we were both pretty exhausted. We'd both been up since 6am (PDT) they day before and only had about two hours of sleep on the plane. We ordered some Chinese food, showered, and crashed. Considering what an awesome day it had been, we were looking forward to what Friday had in store.

(Continue to Part Two)