The refuge's observation tower, overlooking the main feeding impoundment — the signature stop of the Wildlife Drive, where at low tide the wading birds gather to feed in the hundreds.
Pull off here if you can, because this is the heart of the whole drive — the observation tower, looking out over the main feeding flats. Climb up if it's open, or just stand at the rail with your binoculars, and give it time. At low tide this shallow, glinting expanse of water and mud is one of the great bird tables in North America, and patience is everything: the longer you look, the more you'll see.
Watch for the star of the show — the roseate spoonbill, that unmistakable shocking-pink bird with the flat spoon-shaped bill it swishes side to side through the shallows to feel for food. Folks mistake them for flamingos, but spoonbills are the real Sanibel showstopper, and there's nothing else quite that pink flying anywhere. All around them you'll see the whole cast: snowy egrets and great egrets in brilliant white, great blue herons stalking like statues, maybe a reddish egret doing its wild little dance — running, spinning, throwing its wings up like a cape to herd the fish. In winter, look for the huge American white pelicans, and the wood stork, a big bald-headed wader that's a genuinely endangered bird. There are more than two hundred and forty-five kinds of birds recorded on this refuge, so I can't promise you any single one on any given day — but stand here quietly at low tide and I promise you a show. Take your time. The birds reward the patient. Then roll on, slowly, deeper into the mangroves.
Photo: Quadell · CC BY 3.0
