A Pastel Glory – The Roseate spoonbill

Figure 1 – Roseate spoonbill coming in for a landing, Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Fl (c) DE Wolf 2024

In the wildlife refuges of Southwest Florida everyone is looking for the colorful Roseate Spoonbills (Platalea ajaja). It’s almost an obsession. They always seem to be either hidden behind trees or somehere off in the distance, as if they are challenging you to get a good photograph. I find them, as I think Figure 1 taken at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge indicates, kind of clumsy fliers – seen here crashing into the trees because of its huge wingspan.