They are everywhere, shimmering jewels of all shapes scattered throughout the marsh. Common yellowthroats are flitting about in the willows at the waters edge and a great blue heron takes to the air, flying alongside expressing his displeasure at my appearance with loud squawks. White ibis probe in the mud of the sandbars with their big orange bills and a stealthy green heron crouches on a myrtle limb waiting for his unsuspecting breakfast to swim by. The sun is burning the fog off now and the air is getting warmer. A chattering kingfisher stays just in front of my boat hovering in the air like a hummingbird, then diving at the water to snatch a minnow.
Vultures circle lazily, riding the thermals.
An occasional woodstork will join them as they wind higher and higher. A peregrine falcon sits on a dead palm snag and a red-shouldered hawk screams nearby. Thousands of robins are wakening in the red cedar hammocks. Tree swallows are dive bombing for insects over the marsh. Savannah sparrows and myrtle warblers flit and chip in the bushes and a squadron of brown pelicans glides silently overhead.