Granted a calm, warm evening along Sarasota Bay, I opted for an hour of birdwatching. Though the absolute number of sightings was relatively low, it was more than worth my time.
Sitting at the edge of the seawall, my attention first turned to a little blue heron, hunting in a swath of grass. Fish crows noisily called from the nearby rooftops while a pair of magnificent frigatebirds soared silently above the bay. Brown pelicans, double-crested cormorants, white ibis and red-breasted mergansers were the most abundant visitors but I also encountered small numbers of least and royal terns, yellow-crowned night herons, great egrets, tricolored herons and roseate spoonbills.
Just before returning to our condo, I watched five manatees glide along the seawall, their rotund figures barely visible in the fading light. More from Longboat Key in the coming days.
