Today we went to Ding Darling National Wildife Refuge, on Sanibel Island, FL, (where we will be for the winter) and there were spectacular birds and photo ops. Here are some of my favorite photos I shot. This Reddish Egret flew over and we could see a few white feathers on its wing, an abnormality.
The still water acted like a mirror, hence this wonderful Double-crested Cormorant photo, two for the money.
White Pelicans were everywhere! At one point we counted 70 circling overhead. This one looked down at me.
There were many hundreds of shorebirds. Dunlins came in for a landing.
A lone white feather floated on the dark water, like a boat with water drop passengers.
An Anhinga is able to submerge and hunt for fish. Here it is emerging, with concentric rings for a necklace.
We met so many nice birders and photographers at Ding today and the birds were fabulous. It's magic there!!!
To learn more about how to photograph birds in flight like these, click here.
11 comments:
Absolutely fantastic images. Love every single one.
dan
My favorite spot in the world! Enjoy your winter and I will enjoy your gorgeous photos and imagine I'm there!
Hello!
Loving birds, I have always wanted to visit Sanibel. Your photos are amazing!
A whole winter at Ding Darling! What a gift. And that's the first time I've seen double crested cormorants looking that beautiful. I always tell people they can tell the neotropic cormorants from the double crested by cuteness, among other differences.
It was fun meeting you in the Ding yesterday, Lillian! As always, your photos are beautiful. Here's to many more magical birding days in SW Florida!
Janet and Aaron Kirk
Bev and Larry Kaiser
Looks like a marvelous place for birding and for bird photography. How fun would it be to run into Lillian Stokes on the birding trail?!!!
Thank you all for your comments.
Also, Katy Van Note, we are trying to contact you, please send us your email address at this link
http://www.stokesbirdsathome.com/q&a/ask.html
Lillian Stokes
Great images, I especially love the photo of the Reddish Egret in flight. Super shot!
Super start for birding/photos in 2012, Lillian! How about sending some of those beauties up to Sarasota to share with NH friends?
Lovely, stunning images. That shot of the Reddish Egret in flight is just incredible! It's hard to beat Ding Darling for bird photography.
I'm happy to see you are again wintering on Sanibel and that the refuge is still sharing its many charms. I enjoyed a week there last winter, and you may or may not recall, but we met on wildlife drive and you both helped me confirm the ID of a gull I photographed on the beach. Using your excellent new field guide we settled on Lesser Black-backed Gull.
I bought my own copy of your field guide the next day from the refuge gift shop...autographed of course, and its become my new 'go to book' for all my birdy questions. I love having a field guide with so many excellent images.
Wish I was going to Sanibel this winter...maybe next year.
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