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Top 5 FUNky Facts About The Roseate Spoonbill
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
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One morning this past March, I found a pair of roseate spoonbills in the Oasis at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. As I pointed my camera at them, they regarded me with their red-rimmed eyes as though a bit suspicious of the hunk of hardware in my hand (Canon SX110 IS). Today I decided to try and find out a bit more about them, so here are my Top 5 FUNky Facts About The Roseate Spoonbill:
- Aside from vultures and raccoons, one of the biggest enemies of a young nestling roseate spoonbill is fire ants!
- One of the top places in the United States to observe the roseate spoonbill in its natural habitat is Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, located on Sanibel Island. I’ve seen them feeding there and roosting in Rookery Bay down in Naples, Florida – check out these posts.
- The roseate spoonbill sometimes assumes a “wing-lift posture” to dry off its wings, similar to other fishing birds like the anhinga.
- I’ve often mistaken the roseate spoonbill for a flamingo when at a distance (and stubbornly not wearing my glasses). However, they’re actually not related at all. They are more closely related to the ibis. Here are some posts about the scarlet ibis (Disney’s Animal Kingdom) and the white ibis (Sanibel Island).
- The head of the adult roseate spoonbill is sort of green, except when they are breeding – then, it turns a kind of golden color.
- The oldest known roseate spoonbill was found in 2006; it had been banded and the band showed it to be 16 years old!
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A Southwest Florida after dinner treat
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
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Good thing it’s Wordless Wednesday – 
You want me to be happy, don’t you?
DON’T YOU?
The Sea Star Cafe at the Sanibel Inn
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
I went to dinner with some friends on Saturday night – they gave me the choice of venue, so I selected the newly-opened Sea Star Cafe on Sanibel Island. It’s located where Ellington’s used to be, at the Sanibel Inn. When we first arrived, it was after 6:00 PM and there weren’t any other cars in the parking lot. We thought perhaps it was an indicator that the restaurant was not being kindly received, but later on, our waitress reminded us that it’s off season and what few tourists do make it to the island in the summer want to be on the beach as long as there’s daylight. Sunset doesn’t really occur until after 8:00 PM – and the sunsets are amazing down here in the summer time, so I don’t blame those tourists one bit for delaying the dinner hour! There’s a sample menu posted here, but it doesn’t show the wine list or mixed drinks. If memory serves, I ordered a Sanibel Iced Tea, pictured at left, but I don’t remember what was in it – clearly, something that makes it look like a sunset! It was cold and fruity and delicious.
ATMOSPHERE
I like the ambiance of the restaurant – exposed beams in a rotunda, lots of clean wood surfaces and just an airy feel to the place. The booths are very roomy too, but ours looked out over the garbage dumpster in the parking lot. Get one toward the back of the restaurant along the road if you want a better view.
APPETIZER
I started my meal with the house salad and citrus vinaigrette on the side. The salad was fresh, the dressing was a little on the peppery side but overall good, and the bowl was a fail. You cannot tell from the photo, but the square salad bowl is sort of a wedge shape, with the bottom of the bowl being MUCH narrower than the opening at the top. Consequently, when you stab into your salad with your fork, lettuce and stuff erupts onto the table. Maybe if they filled the bowl a little less…??? Honestly, if I were the manager of the restaurant, I’d just ditch these bowls and get something a bit less adventurous.
ENTREES aka THE GREAT LOBSTER TAIL FAIL
Gary and I both ordered the grilled lobster tail. You will notice it was sliced in half lengthwise. This probably worked well in getting a lot of contact with the grill, but it was a fail logistically in terms of trying to pry the meat out of the shell. At some point, you have to pick the meat out with your fingers or just miss out on half your lobster tail. And honestly, if I’d wanted to pick at something with my fingers, I would have ordered an entire lobster or a crab or something. The whole point of ordering just the tail is that you can eat it with your fork and keep your hands clean. We didn’t have extra napkins or wet naps on the table, so things got messy fast. I also have to mention that the lobster tasted like steak. Oh I liked it, but it suggests that fish and meat are cooked on the same grill here. If you are allergic to seafood, then you should probably specifically mention that to the staff here so they will cook your steak separately.
Tootie ordered the shrimp basket and was overall pleased, I believe. I haven’t been over to her blog yet to see! I sampled one of her shrimp – it was a huge portion and they were pretty big shrimp, too. I love how the tail comes RIGHT off when you pull – A+ for that! Tootie said her fries were really good, too.
DESSERT and SERVICE
No, there’s nothing floating in my coffee – it’s the reflection from the overhead light fixture. But it does look like I’ve got “clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee”, doesn’t it?
We did receive a fair amount of attention from the staff – probably there were two reasons for this. One, there weren’t a lot of people there so their attention was not divided much. Two, when patrons whip out cameras and start taking pictures of the food, chances are pretty good a review is on the horizon Well, maybe they didn’t notice the photo-taking, not sure. We did let the manager know about the lobster tail fail and made him pinky-swear that he would never let the chef do that again! For our trouble, we received these humongous double portions of dessert! I had to ask for a box to take half of it home (which I demolished last night after dinner – the cheesecake is totally wicked good!).OVERALL IMPRESSION
I really did like the atmosphere and the friendliness of the staff at the Sea Star Cafe. I would like to come back at some point in the future and see how they are maturing. Also noted – there’s a bar, and the place is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which means this is a potential new stop on the Sunday Sanibel Bar Crawl. Well, we’ll see if we can get Gary to go back…
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How to catch a snook at sunset
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
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A few weeks ago, I went shelling at Blind Pass around sunset. The tide was pretty low, and people were able to wade knee-high into the Pass. I stood on the Sanibel side and was interested in some kids who were playing on the jetty over on the Captiva side – fishing, horsing around, one of them striking a fencing pose with his fishing pole.
All the while, there was a guy in the Pass casting and reeling, casting and reeling. His friend kept encouraging him, even though he wasn’t getting anything. Suddenly, he had a bite! Instead of focusing on the kid, I focused on the Fishing Dude. When he finally reeled it in, he called to his friend, “Man I wish I had a camera!”
“Hey, over here!” I hollered from the shore. “I’ve got a camera!” Whereupon the Fishing Dude held his snook aloft like a trophy and I took the shot.
After they’d clambered out of the water, I asked for Fishing Dude’s email address so I could get the photos to him somehow. I ended up putting them into a set on my Flickr account and sending him the link.
Here’s that set of photos in slide show format, untouched – I didn’t even put a watermark on them, in case Fishing Dude wanted to download any of them. Hope you all enjoy!
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You want me to be happy, don’t you?
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An island tavern in a cavern
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
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I enjoy the ambiance at McT’s. It starts with the outside decor – they’ve got a beached dingy with tall sea grasses growing out of holes it its bottom, a dolphin sculpture and a tropically-decorated Adirondack chair at the front door. Inside, it’s kind of like walking into an undersea cavern – cool and shady, the whimsical mood is set by fantasy-tinged paintings on the walls and the twinkling “stars” strung over the bar. There’s a big blue crab over the bar, too. I like the way the artist just painted the crab’s feet right on top of the air conditioning duct.
There are other things painted on the walls and ceiling, including a couple of mermaids. One of the mermaids is framed on the wall beside the door to the Tavern. I’m a sucker for blue and yellow together, so this is my favorite scene in the whole bar. In this photo, you can see a bit of glare on the lower left of the frame – that’s coming from the glass in the door. As I was taking this photo, one of the wait staff passed by and remarked that she believed the owner’s wife is the artist who creates these paintings, and that she’d just been in recently to freshen them up a bit.
So, how’s the food? you ask. McT’s serves home-made potato chips that would be pretty hard to beat. They are pretty much inhaled as soon as the basket hits the table. Here’s my McT’s lunch of choice – fresh Gulf shrimp, just grilled plain, on a bed of romaine with Caesar dressing on the side. There are all kinds of ways to prepare shrimp, but I like it just grilled because you can really taste how fresh it is that way. To wet the whistle – after all, this is supposed to be a bar crawl – we have a Yellowbird, the official fru-fru drink of the Sunday Sanibel Bar Crawlers and Militant Shellers Association (TM). This is a wonderful libation made from amaretto, rum and pineapple juice, usually garnished with a cherry and an orange slice. The orange slice is typically the first thing ingested.
Overall, I’d say we all enjoy our stops at McT’s, and I’m looking forward to more in the future. Now, if only they had a pool…
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A V.I.P. visits the Sanibel Island lighthouse
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
Here’s a nice article about Miss Florida climbing to the tops of lighthouses all over the Sunshine State to raise money for charity
Miss Florida USA climbs Sanibel Lighthouse
Miss Florida’s lighthouse-climbing schedule can be found here –
On this page, there are a few photos – there are several different styles of lighthouse in Florida, but amazingly there are several that look extremely similar to the one on Sanibel! In fact, the one on Anclote Key is a dead ringer for the one on Sanibel.
gallery of Florida lighthouses
And finally – to see a fine collection of photos of lighthouses from all over the world, you should visit The Lighthouse Cafe on Sanibel Island. It’s on Periwinkle Way on the east end of the island. The walls inside the cafe are COVERED with photos of lighthouses, typically provided by tourists who stop there for a bite to eat.
PS – Amazon has a TON of books about Florida lighthouses – I’m impressed at just how many! Here are the top three for “relevance” –
That last one gives me the urge to take a road trip!
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Sand bandits on Sanibel
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
Not sure what’s less reasonable – the expectation that there will be no sand in the sink AT THE BEACH, or the apparently unwillingness to comply on the part of persons unknown. Captured in the restroom at the Lighthouse Beach, Sanibel Island.
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