Sunrise on our way to Ft Desoto where we caught the ferry for the 30 minute ride over to Egmont Key.
Egmont Key is across the Tampa Bay Shipping Channel from Ft Desoto
The lighthouse on the northeast tip of the island is managed by the US Coast Guard
Flyby of Brown Pelicans
A Great Egret (foreground) was fishing with a Snowy Egret as we motored by the southwest corner of Ft Desoto on our way across the channel.
The Snowy moved on.
Bottlenose Dolphin
Erosion is probably the single biggest environmental issue facing the island as the Gulf of Mexico is trying to reclaim it. The surrounding area and these geotubes were completely covered with several feet of replacement sand on the northwest portion of the island in early 2015. It hasn't taken Mother Nature long to erode away the sand and they are now almost completely exposed.
Laughing Gulls are by far the most common gull on the island and the only gull that nests in Florida (over 30,000 PAIRS nested on Egmont key this summer!)
Handsome White Peacock Butterfly
And the sunset marking the end of another good day on Egmont Key, a true jewel in the Tampa bay NWR.
No comments:
Post a Comment