My daughter-in-law’s parents invited me to visit them in Naples FL around Christmas. They are wonderful hosts and were happy to let me run off with my camera in the mornings. These photos are almost all from San Carlos Bay – Bunche Beach Preserve in Fort Meyers. A future post will have photos mostly taken at the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples.
What is a visit to a Florida gulf coast beach without Brown Pelicans?
Here is a young white morph Reddish Egret hunting along the shore. Success!
Most Reddish Egrets have a slate blue body with a reddish head and neck. But some are born all white, like this one, and look very much like a Snowy Egret. Little Blue Herons are definitely blue though.
And the guy at the bottom snags a little snack. Other beach sightings:
Willets nest on the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts and I see quite a few of them in the summer. Actually I hear them more than see them as they seem to constantly call out their name. “Willet! Willet!” They are difficult to see in the marsh grass but display a very brilliant white pattern in flight. The Godwit is interesting for being a long haul migrant that breeds in northern Canada in the Northern Hemisphere summer and spends winter in southern South America. It has been known to go non-stop in the fall migration! We only see it in the US as it migrates.
More Florida photos from Christmas 2019 in a future post.
Birds in My Viewfinder 
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