Wing Ding Dilly Birding

I don’t know if the famous children’s author, Bill Peet, was a birder, but if he was … I guarantee he would have visited the Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve. Jay “Ding” Darling was instrumental in saving thousands of vital habitat on Sanibel Island, and he also was a Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist. Bill Peet wrote and illustrated the Wing Ding Dilly and many other stupendous books. Walt Disney called Bill Peet his greatest storyman. I rest my case!

With that preamble, I drove over to the Ding Darling Wildlife Preserve yesterday morning and timed my visit for the the two hours leading up to low tide in the morning. I recommend a visit, and you should always visit during the first low tide of the morning. You will be rewarded with a huge number of birds. During high tide, sightings will be much more difficult. (wading birds eat what the tides bring in and deposit on the flats)

Lifers for me included this Roseate Spoonbill, and the Reddish Egret found later in this post.