Sanibel Is For The Birds!

Phaedra here in beautiful Sanibel Island:

Snowy Egret

Sanibel is for the birds!  You heard me right!  It’s for the birds in “oh, so many ways”.  All Zoe and I ever hear these days is “What kind of bird is that one?” or “It’s another shore bird!  They are so hard to tell apart, aren’t they?”

Roseate Spoonbills

You’d think that after 16 hours or so in the car, we’d receive more attention.  We’ve been really good and haven’t chased any of those $#%^& birds, or anything like that.  Papa and Mama have been leaving us alone every morning so all we get to do is sleep.  That’s not so bad, I guess.  But then they come back for lunch and are off again in a really short time.  Then they get home around 4, but are so worn out that we still haven’t been to the beach YET!

Little Blue Heron

You know that the folks are volunteering 3 days a week at J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  This month all they have to do is learn all about the refuge.  That doesn’t seem so hard to do, right?  After all there are only about 180 different species of birds in “Ding” Darling, and not all of them are here all the time.  So far, I’ve seen the Red Shouldered Hawk who stands guard over our “gated community” which is really a small camping area near the maintenance area of the refuge.  And, there are two Red-Bellied Woodpeckers who live right above our deck.  I can identify those for you.

Papa's Green Heron

We are really close to the Visitor Center where Papa and Mama work on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  They ride their bikes to work unless they are going out with a “Rover” on the Wildlife Drive to learn about the birds, plants, manatees, crocodilians, and who knows what else.  You see, they are supposed to be “back-up presenters” to the experts who give these talks to the public.  When Papa heard about this, he almost had heart palpitations.  Ranger Jeff told a refuge board member that he thought he almost gave Papa a heart attack.  The folks hope they won’t need to be back-ups very often. They, also, think that come January 1, they will know all they have to in order to help out! I’m not so sure about them, though.  If I had to learn this stuff, I’d have a lock on it already. They’ve gotten soft since they retired!  And, Zoe would get so distracted with everything around her, she couldn’t even find her way to the Visitor Center if she had to do something like this!  That leaves only moi!  I’d do it without a hitch!

Brown Pelicans on Tarpon Bay

Did you know that the water on Tarpon Bay averages about 2 to 4 feet deep in most places?  That means that we can go swimming if we want to.  Papa and Mama go out there in kayaks one day a week and pull down fishing lines, lures, and things that fishermen have gotten caught in trees.  These might hurt the birds so that’s a really important job.  We can’t go in kayaks, though.  The folks are afraid that we might tip them over if we saw a bird or an alligator nearby and suddenly jumped to that side.  Zoe might, but I am “sure and steady”!  I’m just not sure I want to be alligator bait if you know what I mean.

On the way down here, an armadillo in Brunswick, GA stalked us.  He looked like a hedgehog with a long tail and smooth armor on his body.  Zoe wanted to chase him, but Mama had a fit not knowing what might happen.  We haven’t seen any on Sanibel Island, and I don’t know if they are here.  The first sign that greeted us when we crossed the border into Florida was this one...SNAKES!  Normally I think snakes are cool, but the poisonous ones, not so much.  We don't worry too much about them on the island.  There are bobcats who come through our campground all of the time in the evening.  I haven’t seen one yet, but Bailey the Short Haired Retriever next to us told me all about these big cats.  They are bigger than I am.  I’m not afraid, though.  Bring ‘em on!

Sunset Cruise

White Pelicans and Friends

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron Juvenile

So far, the folks have gone through Sanibel on a trolley, stopping at lots of local shops during the Holiday Luminary last Friday evening.  There was free food, so you know Papa had a wonderful time!  They went to a staff party on Saturday for all the refuge people.  Then Sunday afternoon they took wine and cheese onto a “sunset cruise” in Tarpon Bay.  It was a 3-hour cruise and they did return!  Thank Heavens!  They saw lots of birds like Brown and White Pelicans, Osprey, Yellow-Crowned Night Herons, Anhingas, Cormorants, American Oystercatchers

WAKE UP!  That’s better.  I won’t do that again, I promise.  

Osprey Fishing

Anyway, it’s time for me to go to sleep, now.  I have to get up early so that they can take me outside in the morning.  It’s going to be cold tonight.  I thought Florida was warm.  At least we don’t have any snow like our friend Parker does up in North Carolina.

Phaedra here signing off from my refuge!  Zoe will be in touch later on.

Ta Ta!    P