Wood Stork, Birding

The two things we like best about Sanibel in winter are the great birding and photography opportunities, (especially at Ding Darling NWR), and meeting other birders.

Here's a Wood Stork in flight photo I took yesterday. Someone standing near me said "how can they be so pretty in flight, and so ugly close-up?" Well they are spectacular in flight, with those majestic white wings lined in black and pretty-in-pink feet. There are an unusually large number of Wood Storks that we are seeing at Ding and around Sanibel. That's a good sign, since they are listed as an endangered species in Florida. Wood Storks feed in shallow water on small fish they find by touch, then snap up with their bill. They're mainly a tropical and subtropical species and the only stork species that breeds in North America.

Hi Polly, Ann and Lynne!

We went to another birding location on Sanibel called Sanibel Gardens, because there were reports of a Smooth-billed Ani being seen there. We didn't find an Ani but when we came out the path these fun birding ladies called us over. They had just had a good time at the Space Coast Birding Festival in Titusville and now were birding on Sanibel. We loved that one of them had a very worn, underlined copy of our Stokes Beginner's Guide to Shorebirds that she said had helped her very much learn shorebirds. We told them about our new Stokes Field Guide To Birds of North America, which is coming out this year. We had a great time talking with them.

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