Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge ---------- Sanibel, Florida

Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is named after tenacious political cartoonist Jay Norwood Darling. Darling, a two time pulitzer prize winning cartoonist waged war on what he saw as the destruction of Florida. He was a lifelong conservationist politically active during the first part of the 20th century. Darling served as chief of the Biological Survey during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Darling fought relentlessly against game hogs and for the expansion of the federal wildlife refuge system. In later life, Darling formed the National Wildlife Federation and was its first president.  The Sanibel refuge is an appropriate epitaph to the man and his cartoons.

White Egret

Blue Heron

White Pelicans

Green Heron

Sea Grape

Sheepshead

There is fishing in Ding Darling if you have a license. In an intertidal zone you can catch such delicacies as redfish, flounder, sheepshead, blue crab ... an unbelievable abundance. A Brazilian woman caught the fish above as I happened to pass by.