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| Ding Darling entrance |
7.05 bottlenose dolphin en route to Ding Darling, it was swimming.
Ding Darling wildlife refuge.
'Land, water and vegetation are just that dependent on one another. Without these three primary elements in natural balance, we can have neither fish nor game, wild flowers nor trees, labor nor capital, nor sustaining habitat for humans.'
- Jay Norwood Darling
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| Jay Norwood Darling |
Jay Norward Ding Darling was born in Michigan in 1876. Darling was a very talented artist with a specialty for cartoons. He joined the Des Moines Register in 1906, from then on he signed his cartoons Ding, as it came from combing the first initial of his last name with the last three letters.
His cartoons where known for their humor and politics. The cartoons where in 130 newspapers on a daily basis. 1934 he was named the best cartoonist.
Darling had a passion for politics and conservation, he was worried the effects pollution and hunting was doing to the survival of the wildlife. He was a keen hunter and fisherman, so he used his cartoons to get the message across to the people that regulations that govern the sports needs to be looked and changed.
In 1934, the President at the time, Franklin Roosevelt invited Darling to lead the United States Biological Survey, which also has the U.S fish and wildlife service. He fought for more money to be spent on conservation and protection of wetlands, after a battle he managed to secure $17 million dollars. He set up the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission.
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| One of Darling cartoons. |
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| First Duck Stamp, Darling drew. 1934 |
Darling started the Federal Duck Stamp program. This is issued when a person wants to hunt. The money raised from the purchase of duck stamps goes towards conservation and the preservation of the land.
The J.N. 'Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge and neighboring islands were responsible for creating a refuge on Sanibel Island. The land was donated by worried citizens that it might be built on. It has been under protection by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service since 1945, but in 1978 it was renamed in Darling memory and honor.
We walked round the refuge with a guide, Judy, explained the history and the behavioural habits of the birds. We saw a large array of birds and other wildlife.
8.30 White pelicans
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| White pelicans feeding |
8.30 Reddish Egrets performing a canopy dance
8.30 Snowy Egrets
8.40 Blue heron
8.55 Crab in the water
8.56 Anhinga flew in and landed in the tree
9.00 Osprey
9.05 horseshoe crab shells
9.05 Roseate Spoonbill
9.15 Black tree crabs
9.20 Black rat snake
9.30 Young horseshoe crab
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| Cormorant |
9.30 Mangrove crabs
9.40 Roseate Spoonbill
9.40 Greater yellow legs
9.55 Brown anole
10.00 Mullets
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| Abbie holding a horseshoe crab shell and showing it to the group |
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| View from the observation tower |
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| Brown anole |
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| Black tree crab |
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| Black rat snake |
After the walk around, we went back to the Visitors centre and watched a video, this was going over what Judy had already told us. We had a little time spare before we where due back at the coaches, so we walked along trail. We saw a alligator, racer snake and a rat snake. These were all hard to spot due to their camouflage.
We went to Barefoot beach in the afternoon, which is a 10 minute walk to Vester. On the beach we saw brown and white pelicans and gopher tortoise.
In the evening we had a big surprise, manatees came into Vester, a female and a calf. A few of us went in the canoes but this seemed to stress them out and kept going out of view. Seeing the manatee was a definite highlight of the whole trip. amazing!
Dingdarlingsociety.org,. N.p., 2015.
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