The last couple of days have dawned overcast. When I start to spend many days in a row inside, one of the ways I invite beauty into my world is to look through past portfolios. Sometimes I find a treasure I had overlooked previously. Pete and I are hoping to take a winter interlude and travel to Florida for some R&R which for me includes bird photography. This afternoon I browsed through some folders from our last trip two years ago. Here are a few favorites from late afternoon, at Sanibel's Ding Darling NWR that I rediscovered this afternoon.

This Snowy Egret was much more intent on lunch than on me. Florida's birds are much tamer around humans than their North Carolina counterparts are. I was using a long lens here.

I find such humor sometimes in the natural world. I named this Grand Exit. 

Roseate Spoonbills are a darling of the Ding Darling refuge.

This was the first time we had actually stayed on Sanibel Island, so we could be in the Refuge for sunset. The color intensified after the sun slipped behind the trees.

Eventually there were hundreds of wading birds that flew in at dusk. I enjoyed the challenge of finding small groups for pleasing compositions.

Preparing to leave the refuge near closing time, I could make a last series of images 

showing the scale and grandeur of the scene as a whole.