Alan Gilbertson

I was at Ding Darling a couple of weeks ago and had phenomenal birding. Lots of spoonbills, various herons (little and great blue, tri-color, green, yellow crowned night), white pelicans, storks, egrets, etc.. Wildlife Drive is the main route through the refuge and offers many great and varied opportunities to photograph birds. Suggest you try to be there when it opens at 7am, or shortly thereafter, on a day when the tide is low in the morning. This brings most of the wading birds into the flats to feed. Like most popular areas to view/photo wildlife...follow the 8 mile drive until you see other cars stopped, then follow the many telephoto lenses that others who frequent there will be pointing in the right directions.

While you are in SW Florida you may also want to look into Corkscrew Swamp. It's an Audubon Society Refuge near Bonita Springs that frequently offers a lot of varied birds including barred owls, black crowned night herons, wood storks, painted buntings, etc..Check out their website.

Good Luck!

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Thanks, and by the way, no post processing was done on this one, straight out of the camera. Shot through trees causing a nice vignette.