Bunche Beach

This week I thought I'd share another favorite birding spot, Bunche Beach.  It's great when the tide is low and  the birds are feeding.  You'll find several photographers and birders there in the early morning during low tides to watch the birds.

The bridge behind takes you to Sanibel Island.

 This Reddish Egret has a mullet.

 This Sanderling found a worm.

 We believe this pile of mud is made by the worms.

 Black Skimmers resting on a sand bar.

 A little stream flowing into the gulf  at Bunche Beach.

 Bubbles made by this King's Crown, you can see the little guy's nose.

 Early morning at Bunche Beach a birder's scope is waiting for action.

 This jelly bubble is made by a worm to protect itself from the birds.

 Just a few bird tracks.

King's Crown Conchs burying themselves to wait for the in coming tide.

I'm looking forward to the next low tide to visit Bunche again.

January is gone and we counted 112 species of birds for the month, not a bad start for the year. 

Harns Marsh

 This week I thought I would show you another place we enjoy visiting, Harns Marsh.

It is a quiet place not many visitors other then a few birders and an occasional fisherman.

We have never seen an alligator here but then we don't do the whole 2 mile walk.

 Cattle Egrets.

 I said it was quiet but for the squawks of Sandhill Cranes

 cries of the Red Shouldered Hawk and occasional Bald Eagle.

There's the usual coots, blue wing teal and mottled ducks.

 The specialty of the marsh is the Snail Kite, they nest here.

 These are the apple snails shells the favorite food of the kites and limpkins they are about 2 to 4 inches big..

 Glossy Ibis and White Ibis are abundant here.

 as well as Pied billed Grebes and Moorhens.

 This is a Florida specialty the Limpkin, it has a cry that sounds a little like laughter they also nest here.

 There are  Little Blue Herons, Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons always present.

Early in the morning the trees are filled with Turkey and Black Vultures it's fun to watch them take off for their days search for food and soaring.

We usually meet some nice birders here who tell us about their favorite birding spots that is how we learned about the Venice Rookery.

We hope to find the King Rail here someday, others have seen it as well as the Least Bittern hard to spot birds as they hide in the reeds.

Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve

 This is one of our favorite spots to visit, we walk the 1.2 miles of boardwalk once or twice a week and we  usually get some good photographs.

The Slough is close by too, 15 minute drive from our RV park, and it's just up the road from the ball park where the MN Twins practice and play in the winter.

 Today on our walk there were two juvenile Night Herons to be caught by our cameras.

 One of young alligators that can be found in one of four ponds there seems to be five of them.

 White Ibis and Great Egrets are usually found fishing among the Cypress Trees knees.

 In Nov. the Cypress Trees wore colorful feathery leaves which have all dropped off now.

 After a good rain the Resurrection Ferns turn green, here some are green and many brown fronds so there wasn't

a very good rain.  The slough has abundance of plants ferns, bromeliads, Sabal Palms, Oaks,Slash Pines and many water  plants.

 We  aren't bothered with biting insects the mosquito larvae are feed upon tiny fish called Gambusia.

We have found a couple of these Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers and on our first visit

we saw couple snakes.

This Big Al the 15 yr old alligator everyone comes to see.

On average we will see 5 species of warblers, a couple of woodpeckers, anhingas, cormorants  Gt. Blue Herons, and there is always nice surprise bird like today the juvenile night Herons, last week a Wood Stork and a couple of weeks ago a Roseate Spoonbill.

Jan Bird Photos

Here's a few of my better photos taken in the last few days.

The Common Tern is a new bird for us.

Common Tern

Black Skimmers

 Sanderling

Sanderlings in flight

I'm trying to get birds in flight but it is so hard, they have to be gliders and even then I may not get them.

Over look of 2012

Snail Kite

 We had a very good year, good birding, good travel and good health.

We ended the year today by spotting a new bird to add to our Florida and Life List, the Snail Kite.

Collage of the the National Parks, Memorials and Places.

 We added 17 National Parks and Historical Places to our count, that doesn't include the Presidential homes we visited as they not National Parks.  We have visited 76 National Spots to date.

Some of the new birds added to our life list.

 We added 36 new birds to our life list this year.  I also kept a year list which we ended up seeing 325 species of birds this year.  We have 100 species on our Florida list so far.  Our life list total is 475 species.

We like to wish all our friends and readers Happy New Year

and

Beaches we've visited

Bunche Beach Preserve

Bowman Beach on Sanibel

Captiva Island Beach

Delnor Wiggins State Park Beach in Naples

Bonita Beach access #6

Ft. Myers beach by Holiday Inn

Bonita Beach access #3

Lover's Key State Park

Tarpon access beach on Sanibel

Sanibel Lighthouse Park