Back to Fort Myers

Over the weekend Bill and I visited our good friends Wendy & Larry in Cape Coral. Naturally, we found some time to get a little birding in.

This beautiful Bald Eagle was perched just a couple of houses away from Wendy's. What a great way to begin our day!

I've only seen a Reddish Egret one other time while walking on the beach in Fort Myers with my sister. This one was at Ding Darling on Sanibel.  Unfortunately, it was about the only bird we saw at Ding Darling!

Love the hairdo!

Harns Marsh is one of our most favorite places to visit. We arrived just as the sun was coming up through the fog. There were several Limpkins making lots of noise.

We saw about 5 Sandhill Cranes and they too were loudly protesting the arrival of morning.

Harns Marsh is one of the few places you can see Snail Kites and we were not disappointed. We saw about a dozen including several juveniles.

 After our visit to Harns Marsh we walked Six-Mile Cypress. I was delighted to see this Ovenbird.

Every time we visit, the slough is different - but we always see Double-crested Cormorants.

And Anhingas

This is a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. We saw a couple of adults, but they were deep in the bushes and I could not get a decent picture.

We saw a few smaller birds, including a Black-throated Green Warbler, but the light was terrible for pictures.

It was nice to visit our old stomping grounds, but we are glad we moved to Ocala. The traffic in Fort Myers, Sanible & Captiva was horrible. Our visit was special but we were glad to get home.

Blogging From Ocala

Here I sit in our new house in Ocala - the first chance I've had to blog in a couple of weeks. It's really starting to feel like home now. Bill loves his garage and is busy setting up storage for his planes. The last of the furniture we've ordered - a comfy recliner - should arrive tomorrow. There is still lots to do, but the rest of the big projects - and purchases - will have to wait until we return next year.

We will make just one more trip back to our condo in Fort Myers - to spend Easter week with grandson Zachery - before packing the last of our things and closing it up for the summer. The condo is for sale and people are looking, but no offers yet. To help it sell, we planted a statue of Saint Joseph in the yard - upside down and facing the building - but Bill broke his head off in the process - so that might delay things just a tad.

We had a nice visit with Bill's sister, Terry and her husband, Ray. I took this picture at Lover's Key. After a couple of standard posed pictures, I told them to do something fun and Terry decided to hug Ray. He looks startled - but it's a great picture of Terry! Ray scoured the beach for interesting shells to use in his art projects and jewelry.

Naturally, we took Terry and Ray to all of our favorite places. This young Yellow-crowned Night Heron has just snagged a tasty morsel for lunch at the Ding Darling Preserve on Sanibel.

My but that was good!

This is either a Common Merganser or its near twin, a Red-breasted Merganser - the first time I've spotted one on Sanibel.

There are lots of these beautiful Meadowlarks on Cape Coral.

This Florida Softshell Turtle is one of the oddest creatures I've ever seen! Look at his snout!

I always enjoy the cardinals. We have lots of them in Ocala - but we don't often see them in Ft. Myers.

This is the Ovenbird that lives at the Corkscrew Swamp Preserve. It's a terrible picture - but at least it proves I actually saw it!

Last year we saw quite a few Florida Scrub Jays - but they have been more illusive this year.

Bill and I are starting to think more about the mountains in Colorado and plan to head north towards the end of April. We might have to stop along the way for the annual Fayette Flyers RC Show.