Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

On a glorious sunny April morning, we drove the truck, with our bikes, aboard to Sanibel Island.  Just past all the activity of shops and folks along the island, there is a long stretch of seemingly isolation.  This is the area set aside as a wildlife refuge at the end of Sanibel and just before entering Captiva Island.  The refuge is called Ding Darling.  What a name!!  It turns out, a very famous cartoonist whose nickname was Ding and whose last name was Darling was a leader in getting this area preserved as a National Wildlife Refuge.

We took an 8 mile loop through the refuge.  The bird life was truly spectacular.  There were volunteers along the route with telescopes where you could see whatever was spotted along the way.  We happened upon a volunteer who had a two week old hawk in sight.  I looked through the telescope, and to my surprise, saw an all white baby hawk with black eyes.  I did not realize baby hawks were all white.  This little one was squawking non stop for mama. I think she had a lot of hunting to do to keep this little one satisfied.

As we biked along, we saw a young raccoon come out of the bushes--apparently to cross the road--and came to a sudden stop when he saw us.  He ran back in the bushes and then popped out again.  Oh my, they are still there.  He took a quick retreat back to his concerned mama and papa, and we could here all kinds of scurrying going on in the bushes.  We rode on ahead a bit and when we looked, back, the whole family crossed the road.  It was quite a sight.

Along the road were ponds on one side and then the bay that leads to the Gulf of Mexico on the other side.  We saw a sea bird not too often spotted called Roseate Spoon-bill.  This bird is smaller than an egret with white body and pink wings.  It is most beautiful.  All along the route there were hundreds of sea birds of all different species in the pond area.  These ponds make great resting areas and feeding areas.

We also saw an unusual looking turtle--not sure as to its name, but the alligators were busy elsewhere and not seen that day. 

When I see National preserves and parks like this one, I cannot help but think how great an idea it was for people like Ding Darling and those in and out of government to fight to preserve land not only to preserve habitat for native animals and plants, but to have these places of such wonder for people to visit.

tg