With a name like “Ding,” he was a Darling: Sanibel Island, FL

Recreation of Ding Darling’s office

J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge has 35 species of mammals, 60 species of reptiles and amphibians, 102 species of fish and 272 species of birds.

The refuge is one of 560 in the National Wildlife Refuge System.  Visitors to the 7,608 acres have many options.  One can hike, go birding, use a canoe or stand-up paddle board.  There are boat rentals, fishing guides, free lunchtime naturalist talks, nature and sea life cruises, exhibits, tram tours, bike rentals, free walking tours and naturalist lectures, a weekly lecture series and a film series.  Whew!  Or you could just find a spot to sit, be quiet and watch.

Snowy Egret

The first wildlife refuge was Florida’s 5-acre Pelican Island in 1903.  Jay Norwood Darling, nicknamed Ding, led an effort to block the sale of a parcel on Sanibel to developers and later persuaded President Harry S. Truman to sign an executive order creating the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge in 1945.  The refuge was renamed for Darling in 1967.

Younger readers who grew up with television and the Internet might not appreciate a time when newspapers were the most influential political voices in the nation.  Particularly influential were editorial cartoonists.  Darling drew over 15,000 political cartoons.  He appeared regularly in magazines and was syndicated in over 140 newspapers.  He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 and 1943 [no, we were not around then either].  He served on government commissions and as head of the forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  He is credited with creating the first Duck Stamp program which provides funds for wildlife conservation in the U.S.  Other countries now follow his lead.

Great Blue Heron

The refuge includes bays, ponds, seagrass beds, marshes, and West Indian hardwood hammocks.  There is even a Calusa shell mound created by the pre-Columbian First Americans.

Parking and the Visitors’ Center exhibits are free but there is a charge for the tram tour and to drive the approximately five-mile long Wildlife Drive [Currently $5 per vehicle or $1 per pedestrian or bicycle].

Multi-colored Tourist Birds

Alie’s physical problems keep our ventures into the refuge pretty sedate: a drive and short walks.  But there is so much to see, we enjoy it every time.  On our early visits, we often saw Wilma, a crocodile.  Somehow she made it to Ding Darling from the southern tip of the Everglades and decided to stay.  There are plenty of alligators, but until she died in 2010, she was the only crocodile that far north. Perhaps we were fond of her because she liked to get away too.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Red Mangroves, nursery for the bay

White Pelicans

Cormorant having breakfast

Little Blue Heron

Brown Pelican

Louisiana Heron

Ibis

Lousiana Herons

Try to visit at low tide as we did to see birds feeding.

P.S.  That snowy egret is very white despite foraging in muddy water.  I learned today there are many factors.  The feather cell structure has a tight weave.  They comb and clean themselves with their beaks and comb-like structures on their third toe.  When they preen, they also transfer oil from a gland to the feathers and a white dust that acts like Teflon to repel dirt.