Sanibel

Over Christmas, our family again went to Sanibel, Florida, home of Ding-darling NWR. Last year, my trips there were limited to 3 drives through the wildlife drive with my parents. This is OK for seeing all the big wading birds, but made me miss photo opportunities for a lot of passerines and shorebirds, and didn’t give me time to sp end hours at a time on individual birds. This time around, my parents agreed to drop me off there every day from 7:30-4:30. In doing so, I got tons of great pictures, a few bird lifers, and many butterfly and dragonfly lifers. In all, I spent about 40 hours at DD.

When we got to Ft. Myers, I was already expecting the huge array of wading birds on the side of the road, but still didn’t stop me from getting excited over the Wood Storks, Ibises, and Herons everywhere. I even saw 2 flyover Sandhill Cranes, an overdue lifer I somehow missed last year! When we got to the hotel, it was already 2pm, and I figured that I should just hang around the hotel grounds. As soon as I got out of the car, a large butterfly flew up. Grabbing my camera, I perused it until it landed. I snapped a few shots, and identified it as a Monk Skipper. Also around were Brown Anoles, Great Pondhawks, and a Cattle Egret hunting for the anoles. I also saw a dragonfly I couldn’t identify, dispite good looks and fairly decent photos.

At Ding-darling the next day, I saw lots of great birds, including Spoonbills, all the Egrets, Herons, and shorebirds. Over the course of the week, I got to see things like Mangrove Cuckoo, Common Ground Dove, Short-tailed Hawk, all 3 falcons, Phantom Darner, Zebra Longwing, and Queen. One day, I was able to get a ride with local birders to a swamp in Ft. Myers, and saw Limpkin, Common Moorhen, and Snail Kite. I brought home an Apple Snail shell that was under the kite’s feeding post. Here is my list of birds, with the rare stuff in bold.

> Mottled Duck - Anas fulvigula 15

> Blue-winged Teal - Anas discors 30

> Hooded Merganser - Lophodytes cucullatus 2

> Red-breasted Merganser - Mergus serrator 4

> Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps 10

> Northern Gannet - Morus bassanus 4

> American White Pelican - Pelecanus erythrorhynchos 100

> Brown Pelican - Pelecanus occidentalis 20

> Double-crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus 30

> Anhinga - Anhinga anhinga 100

> Magnificent Frigatebird - Fregata magnificens 3

> Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 10

> Great Egret - Ardea alba 20

> Snowy Egret - Egretta thula 30

> Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea 20

> Tricolored Heron - Egretta tricolor 20

> Reddish Egret - Egretta rufescens 20

> Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis 30

> Green Heron - Butorides virescens 5

> Black-crowned Night-Heron - Nycticorax nycticorax 3

> Yellow-crowned Night-Heron - Nyctanassa violacea 8

> White Ibis - Eudocimus albus 50

> Glossy Ibis - Plegadis falcinellus 2

> Roseate Spoonbill - Platalea ajaja 40

> Wood Stork - Mycteria americana 5

> Black Vulture - Coragyps atratus 15

> Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura 30

> Osprey - Pandion haliaetus 10

> Snail Kite - Rostrhamus sociabilis 1

> Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus 4

> Northern Harrier - Circus cyaneus 1

> Sharp-shinned Hawk - Accipiter striatus 1

> Cooper's Hawk - Accipiter cooperii 1

> Red-shouldered Hawk - Buteo lineatus 3

> Short-tailed Hawk - Buteo brachyurus 1

> American Kestrel - Falco sparverius 1

> Merlin - Falco columbarius 1

> Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus 1

> Clapper Rail - Rallus longirostris 1

> Virginia Rail - Rallus limicola 1 (was photographing a wood stork. When the stork flushed, he snapped a stick and flushed this guy below)

> Sora - Porzana carolina 1

> Purple Gallinule - Porphyrio martinica 1 (seen in airport runway with lots of Moorhens)

> Common Moorhen - Gallinula chloropus 40

> American Coot - Fulica americana 20

> Limpkin - Aramus guarauna 4

> Sandhill Crane - Grus canadensis 2 (OK, not rare, but a lifer)

> Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola 30

> Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus 20

> Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus 1

> Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus 3

> Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius 2

> Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca 5

> Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes 20

> Long-billed Curlew - Numenius americanus 1

> Marbled Godwit - Limosa fedoa 1

> Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres 8

> Red Knot - Calidris canutus 3

> Sanderling - Calidris alba 10

> Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri 5

> Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla 50

> Dunlin - Calidris alpina 1000

> Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus 20

> Laughing Gull - Leucophaeus atricilla 10

> Ring-billed Gull - Larus delawarensis 30

> Herring Gull - Larus argentatus 4

> Lesser Black-backed Gull - Larus fuscus 1

> Caspian Tern - Hydroprogne caspia 2

> Royal Tern - Thalasseus maximus 30

> Sandwich Tern - Thalasseus sandvicensis 10

> Black Skimmer - Rynchops niger 3

> Rock Pigeon - Columba livia 10

> Eurasian Collared-Dove - Streptopelia decaocto 10

> White-winged Dove - Zenaida asiatica 10

> Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura 10

> Common Ground-Dove - Columbina passerina 4

> Black-hooded Parakeet - Nandayus nenday 2

> Mangrove Cuckoo - Coccyzus minor 2

> Eastern Screech-Owl - Megascops asio 1

> Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Archilochus colubris 1

> Belted Kingfisher - Megaceryle alcyon 4

> Red-bellied Woodpecker - Melanerpes carolinus 4

> Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Sphyrapicus varius 1

> Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus 9

> Eastern Phoebe - Sayornis phoebe 1

> Great Crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus 1

> Loggerhead Shrike - Lanius ludovicianus 5

> White-eyed Vireo - Vireo griseus 1

> Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata 2

> American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos 1

> Fish Crow - Corvus ossifragus 2

> Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor 1000

> Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus 1

> Marsh Wren - Cistothorus palustris 3

> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea 3

> Eastern Bluebird - Sialia sialis 2

> American Robin - Turdus migratorius 2

> Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis 7

> Northern Mockingbird - Mimus polyglottos 1

> Brown Thrasher - Toxostoma rufum 1

> European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris 20

> Northern Parula - Parula americana 1

> Pine Warbler - Dendroica pinus 1

> Prairie Warbler - Dendroica discolor 1

> Palm Warbler - Dendroica palmarum 10

> Black-and-white Warbler - Mniotilta varia 1

> Ovenbird - Seiurus aurocapilla 1

> Common Yellowthroat - Geothlypis trichas 2

> Eastern Towhee - Pipilo erythrophthalmus 2

> Savannah Sparrow - Passerculus sandwichensis 1

> Northern Cardinal - Cardinalis cardinalis 3

> Painted Bunting - Passerina ciris 1

> Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus 2

> Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula 1

> Boat-tailed Grackle - Quiscalus major 10

Leps

Mangrove Buckyeye

Common Buckeye

White Peacock

Monk Skipper

Queen

Zebra Longwing

Red Admiral

Gulf Fritillary

Cassius Blue

Ceraunus Blue

Orange-barred Sulfur

Barred Yellow

Great Southern White

Giant Swallowtail

Tropical Checkered Skipper

Dorantes Longtail

Odes:

Phantom Darner

Wandering Glider

Twilight Darner

Roseate Skimmer

Great Pondhawk

Blue Dasher

Hyacinth Glider

4-spotted Pennant

Red-veined Pennant

I'm adding shots continuously to my flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/longspur

and have some FL ones on there now.