We spent most of this week in Sarasota, Florida, visiting my dad in his nursing home - he finally had to leave his condo (at the age of 94), but we got to stay in the condo with a view of brown pelicans diving into the harbor. We saw black skimmers and a wide variety of terns at white-sand Siesta Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The high point of our birdwatching was a visit ten miles inland to Myakka River State Park. Only two alligators, but lots of Sandhill Cranes and Roseate Spoonbills and Wood Storks. We saw three ospreys, and countless herons and egrets and black vultures.
Oh, and we saw some beautiful bufflehead ducks in a pond near the nursing home. There are several ponds surrounding the nursing home, and my dad enjoys watching the birds around the pond - mostly egrets and cormorants and anhingas when we were there.
Florida is a birdwatching paradise.
-Joe-