Tri-colored heron

Saturday
The sun and blue skies were back again today, though it remained quite windy, and cooler than it has been. We decided it would be a good morning to return to "Ding" Darling Wildlife refuge and drive the auto loop. The tide was lower today, which is better for bird watching, since there are more sand flats exposed, giving the birds more places to land and feed. There were quite a lot of people out enjoying the birds this morning, some in their cars and some on bikes, and also quite a lot of fishermen. We got some more good sightings of osprey on a nest, enjoying their catch, and also saw great egrets, snowy egrets, cormorants, black-bellied plovers, reddish egrets, tri-colored herons, pelicans, sandpipers, and a female mottled duck with a family of chicks. Another afternoon on the beach, but I didn't venture in the water today - the water was still fairly churned up, and the weather forecast said to watch out for rip-tides, so I didn't want to take any chances.