Ding Update - 4/24/10 - Spoonbill Explosion & SW Fla Update
I don't know if yesterday, 4/24 was a special day vis a vis tides, or perhaps the spoonbills are returning en masse to Ding Darling, but FWIW, there had to be over 25-50 spoonbills congregated along the pond to the right of the observation tower yesterday early in the am around 7:30 am, and again between 6:00pm and 7:30pm in the evening.
In the morning when I arrived, there were about 15 spoons in this area. Interestingly, there were no spoons in the 1st pond on the left which is where I traditionally have seen them this year. That first pond was empty.
The coordinates for where the spoons were is 26.46216667,-82.13333333 for those who are not familiar with the park.
The best time was in the evening as they were in sweet light. By 7:00 or so, the 50 or so spoons starting their take offs towards you - westbound (though about 5-10 of them decided to head towards the north east). You really need to have 2 cameras as you need at least 500mm to photograph the spoons in the mangroves and 300-400 for flight as they were literally flying directly overhead or right next to you....300 would have been better as I clipped a lot of them with 400.
Overall, this year, is a great year for spoons at the park as for the first time in years, I've not been disappointed when I've visited the park (so long as you are there just after sunrise and at least 2 hours before sunset). I've attached an image so you could get an idea of what we had there yesterday.
Apart from the spoonie explosion, in the early am, there was a plethora of white birds in the large pond on the left after the observation tower feeding and going nuts. Long lens needed. Other than that, many osprey nests, a few hawks, but nothing much after that.
Lighthouse beach was pretty dead except for some active osprey nests when I was there mid morning. Blind Pass, dead.
Captiva was cranking with frigatebird action. Many of them flying (saw as many as 6 in group) and flying low even diving to catch fish. I didn't have the camera and it was visible from the South Sea Island Resort which is available only to guests (but if you have a boat you could see them).
There is a lot of songbird activity on Sanibel/Captiva right now, but too difficult to photograph them.
Bunche Beach on Friday morning just after sunrise was pretty dead and the tide was really higher than normal for that time. About a dozen or so shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers, willets) and osprey overhead.
That's it for now.... Live Pink or Die!
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Originally Posted by Matthew Gaige
