Florida Flight

Pelican Bay near Naples, FL January, 2014 
(By the way, we observed a green flash during the sunset at Pelican Bay, honest!!  Unfortunately, we were unable to document the flash with a picture.) 

When a polar vortex swirls down out of the Arctic and sweeps across the Cape, some of the less hardy Harwich residents (that's us) flee south.  The temperature on the west coast Florida beach above was 65 F compared with Cape Cod temperatures in the single digits.  Contrast the view of the winter beach at Pelican Bay above with that of the Chatham beach below. 

Morris Island, MA December, 2013

 We spent a couple of weeks touring Florida, staying with some gracious and very generous friends (Thanks so much!).  Florida has some great parks, refuges and preserves to which all kinds of birds flock, including snow birds like us.  The variety of species is impressive.  A sampling is shown below. 

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge   

Tricolored Heron

White Ibis

American Avocet

Roseate Spoonbill

 

Big Cypress Swamp Boardwalk

Juvenile White Ibis

Bald Eagle

 

Turner River Driving Loop

Green Heron

Anhinga

 

Pelican Bay Beach

Sanderling or Western Sandpiper (You tell me?)

Osprey

Osprey enlarged

 

Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck