Several friends and I visited Little Estero Lagoon, located at the south end of Fort Myers Beach, this morning.  We arrived around 8:30 at the north end of the Lagoon, by the Holiday Inn.  The tide was at a low point (-0.6 ft), which is the lowest I had ever seen it there.  We found most of the birds at the southern end of the Lagoon.  Unfortunately, by the time we realized that and arrived there, the sun was quite high, making for very harsh lighting.

We saw 24 species of birds in the Lagoon.  They included four of the five Plovers (Black-bellied, Piping, Semipalmated, & Wilson’s), Killdeer, Kingfisher, Dunlin, Sandpipers (Least & Western), Egrets (Great, Reddish, & Snowy), Herons (Little Blue, & Tricolored), Yellow-crowned Night-heron, Osprey, Ruddy Turnstone, and six Roseate Spoonbills.

Several friends and I visited the Laurel Landfill in Sarasota County this morning.  We arrived there at 8:00 am, just as it opened for visitors.  It was a nice sunny morning, although a bit chilly and breezy.  After signing in, we started driving the perimeter heading to the right.  We saw several deer at three different locations.  There were also quite a number of Killdeer in the freshly mowed fields, along with several Meadowlarks.  We saw some Bluebirds in the trees behind the fence.  Along the fence line, we observed numerous Palm Warblers, some Pine Warblers, and some Savannah Sparrows.

A highlight of the morning was watching a Kestrel hover above a field and then dive down after its prey.  We were fortunate to get some good pictures of this Kestrel sitting in a tree and on the wires. There were two Red-shouldered Hawks in the same area.  In back of the RC field, two Sandhill Cranes flew in to entertain us.  There was also a small flock of about ten Glossy Ibis feeding.

The number of birds increased dramatically as we approached the trash mountains.  Hundreds of Gulls (Laughing, Ring-billed, and Herring), along with at least half-a-dozen Bald Eagles (mostly immature), and, of course the ever present Vultures (Black and Turkey) were seen.  Pond number 2 had the usual wading birds (Herons, Egrets, Wood Storks, and White Ibis) and several Moorhens.  We saw about 35 different species during our two-hour visit.  We didn’t find out about the Upland Sandpiper being observed there yesterday until we arrived home.  If we had known about it earlier, we could have spent some quality time looking for it and maybe obtaining some good images.

Several friends and I visited the Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel Island this morning.  It was a beautiful sunny and warm morning.  We found quite a number of other people that had the same idea.  We observed a large number and variety of birds, mostly water birds.

Some of the more notable birds observed included Reddish Egrets, Marbled Godwits, many Pied-billed Grebes, Red-breasted Mergansers, White Pelicans, Spotted Sandpiper, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Blue-winged Teal, and Lesser Yellowlegs.  We observed about 35 species in the Refuge.

On the way home, we stopped at Tropical Gulf Acres (Twin Lakes Road on East side of US41) to see the Egyptian Goose.  We found it by itself, sitting in the shade of a red pickup truck.