Ding Darling Bird Sanctuary
Created | Updated Mar 31, 2005
The position of the Bird Sanctuary on Sanibel and Captiva Island.
Somewhere in the distant past it so happened that I was very lucky to be able to spend an evening at Ding Darling Bird Sanctuary on Sanibel Island.
For those kind readers who are not familiar with them I should say that a bird sanctuary is for birds only - no two or four-legged creatures are invited1. This is why a little hide-away has been cleverly created on the very edge of the protected territory so that curious humans may see, but not disturb, the birds. It is constructed from wood and includes a little bench where people can sit and watch while keeping very quiet and not making any jerky, fast movements. You must understand that the enemies of birds all move very fast which obviously makes them extremely sensitive to any fast movement!
Generally every creature which is kept busy staying alive during the day needs to have a good rest at night in order to gather enough energy for the next day's activities. Birds take great care arranging themselves and their environment for the much-needed good night's sleep! Just watch chickens on a farm and you can observe how they fuss around to settle down for the night.
The main occupants of this Florida bird sanctuary were egrets. These birds, because of their beauty, were once hunted for their feathers which were often used to adorn stupid women's hats! Thankfully this practice is out of style these days! The egrets here are very much respected, loved and protected. During the day they are busy, skillful hunters in the shallow waters around the island. Nature has provided them with fine equipment; long legs to walk endlessly in the water and a fine long beak to catch the food abundantly available at their feet. They also fly very gracefully, taking off from the water at once.
Human airplane designers could learn from seeing an egret in flight! Egrets are not small birds and, when they fly, they stretch out their long legs. The white plumage sparkles in the air as the neck stretches out and, with their long beaks, this increases the length of their body producing a magnificent sight.
But nothing is 100% perfect, not even Nature. Egrets are graceful while hunting or flying but, when it comes to 'ground manoeuvres', they become really clumsy! This is what was so funny and entertaining in the evening when they returned to the trees of the sanctuary to find somewhere to settle for a good night's rest. As the sun was already shining on the other side of the globe, watching them in the evening twilight trying to find a proper perch for each and every one of the group was a good show - like in an Off-Broadway theatre!
Whether they have the same spot for every night I don't know. But, whatever the process is to find the right spot for a good night's sleep, it is done with a lot of pushing and shoving supported by a loud commotion. Finding a comfortable perch next to each other takes time and even more time passes before they can calm down. In the semi-darkness of the evening the hundreds of white bodies of the egrets sitting on the tree branches itself is an unusual sight!
But than something happens which makes the beautiful setting become unsettled! An egret comes home late! Now this is such an unforgivable event that the entire community joins in screaming and yelling at the unruly member. This set me to thinking if I could understand why they were yelling with such a full force. It is probably because, after a long time 'configuring' the perching order, it has now been turned upside down! The disturbed birds clumsily try to form a new order; slipping on and off with their long legs, flopping their wings to keep balance while yelling about the discomfort they have had to suffer to make room for this disturbing individual! It is an extremely upsetting interruption for these birds. Because of their long legs and well-developed bodies they don't fit onto a perch setting as easily as something small like a little sparrow!
It took some time until the egret community found the best position for the coming night's sleep but, finally, it was getting just too dark to continue the fighting and they quietened down. Leo and I very slowly and quietly also slipped down from the 'observation tower' and walked home to our own perching situation in the cottage. There, next to the 'house', our plane was already deeply asleep.
