Mutual of J-TWO-O's Wild Kingdom: Birds of Sanibel Edition

Greetings fellow nature lovers!

This Friday I had the good fortune to go on the Stokes Private Birding Tour of the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, sponsored by the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Society, of which I am a member.

Donald and Lillian Stokes are noted bird watchers and the authors of the Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. And I, along with a few dozen other people who like to watch and photograph birds, got a lesson from Lillian Stokes on how to take a good bird photo.

It was a great morning, with the weather warm, the tide low, and birds aplenty. And despite the problems associated with trying to photograph birds -- they move a lot and us loud, pale apes frighten them -- I managed to take over a dozen good photographs. (Unfortunately, my Nikon DSLR is apparently not a morning camera, and refused to take a good photo, but I had my wonderful little Canon SX720, which takes amazingly good photos for a camera its size.)

Here are some of my favorite bird photos from the Stokes Private Birding Tour of Ding Darling. (Sadly, there were no roseate spoonbills, but you can't have everything.) Enjoy!

White pelican and great blue heron

White pelican in flight

White pelicans

Snowy egret

Puffed up snowy egret

Snowy egret in flight

Snowy egret in flight

White pelicans

White pelicans and little blue herons

Mottled duck

Tricolored heron

Male and female mottled duck

Snowy egret in mangrove

Tricolored heron

Anhinga

Tricolored heron in mangrove

Cormorant (this photo cracks me up)

A valentine to nature

Welcome to another episode of Mutual of J-TWO-O's Wild Kingdom.

As many of you, I love nature -- especially birds and shells (and flowers, but that's another post). So this Valentine's Day, I am sharing my love of nature with some beautiful and awe-inspiring photos of birds and shells I took the last few days*, which will hopefully distract you from all the ugliness in the world, albeit briefly.

To quote Jon Stewart, here is Your Moment of Zen...

*On Sanibel Island, Florida

Birding, Beaching & Shelling on Sanibel Island

Had a credit I had to use or lose on JetBlue by the end of January, so the spouse and I decided to take a quick mid-winter, mid-week break on Sanibel Island, one of my favorite places.*

For those of you unfamiliar with Sanibel Island, it is in Southwest Florida (near Ft. Myers, just north of Naples), and is renowned for its shelling, birding, miles of beach, and fabulous sunrises and sunsets.

Here are some of my favorite photos (and memories) from our recent Sanibel jaunt, taken with my little Canon PowerShot S90 or my Nexus 5 smart phone ('cause the spouse convinced me I didn't need to bring my Nikon -- ahem).

First up, the prettiest sunrise that you ever did see.

Next, shells. The reason I go to Sanibel Island. Though the shelling was not particularly good this visit, despite there being a new moon. Still, I managed to find a dozen or so nice ones. (The colors are much deeper and brighter when the shells are wet. But I was in a hurry and didn't have time to spritz them for their close-up.)

I had much better results with birding, though.

First up, check out this lovely snowy egret, wading into the water, on the beach in front of the Island Inn, where we stayed this visit.

Next, a visit to the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, an amazing place, yielded several photos of roseate spoonbills. I even managed to convince one roseate spoonbill to come up very close to the viewing platform, so I could snap this photo of it. (I am the roseate spoonbill whisperer.)

We also spotted flocks of white pelicans and storks and this little night heron there. (Look, he's smiling!)

Back on the beach, we watched this seagull land this silvery, catfish-looking fish and then wrestle with it, which was pretty amazing. (I will spare you the gory photos.)

And there were terns everywhere. I particularly love this photo where the tern second from the right is chewing out the tern next to her. (I really should have taken a video. It was hysterical. Talk about hen-pecked!)

I also managed to catch an ibis in flight. (Look to the left of the photo.) So beautiful.

Sunsets are a big deal on Sanibel, with people lining the beach, or relaxing in beach chairs (like these plastic Adirondack chairs), to view it (often with a glass, or bottle, of wine).

I think this photo captures the mood.

Speaking of the sunsets, I took dozens of photos of the two sunsets we saw, but I particularly like this one, where you can see brown pelicans fishing near the horizon.

Until next time...

*Luckily (?), we made it  back to Connecticut just before Mother Nature decided to dump six (or was it seven?) inches of snow on us last night.Woohoo! (I miss you, 75-degree weather and beautiful, warm sandy beach!)