Rain on Gandy beach

Laughing gull taking a bath.

Least sandpiper taking a bath.

BIG and little.  Juvenile laughing gull on the left and least sandpiper on the right. I forget how small those sandpipers are until I see them next to a gull.

Least sandpiper walking around.

Dowitcher digging around for something.

Sandwich tern with a mouthful.

I stopped on the Gandy bridge beach on the way home from work hoping for some lightning pictures. The rain came but no lightning.

East beach turnaround at Fort Desoto

I think this was a short billed dowitcher. He was digging pretty deep.

I think this is a first winter common tern. He seemed to be the lone common on the beach.

Tricolored heron darting for food.

Crabs heading down to the water.

Fiddler crabs on the beach.

I got to the east beach turnaround at Fort Desoto pretty early in the morning. Only a few fishermen were there. The tide was really low so I walked along the mangroves pretty far past the normal part of the beach. I didn't see the crabs as I walked along the mangroves. When I was walking back to my car I saw this movement in the sand. At first I thought it was a lot of leaves that had blown onto the beach. As I got closer, I realized it was crabs coming from the mangroves. I took some pictures from pretty far away thinking they would scurry back to the mangroves as I got closer to them but they didn't leave. They let me get pretty close. This was the closest I have gotten to these little fiddler crabs. One thing I didn't notice at first is that some of the crabs have the pincher on the left side and some on the right side. So, I looked it up.  Only male crabs have the enlarged claw. It can be on either side. Females have two small claws. But, males can lose their enlarged claw for a while when they molt and regrow another one. So just by looking at one with no large claw it could be either a male or female. Unless, you look real close and see the two small claws on the female. Good luck getting that close.

Shorebirds at Fort Desoto

The usual oystercatcher at the north marsh.

Short billed dowitcher in non-breeding colors.

Marbled godwit hanging with some willets. They were all trying to nap.

Wilson's plover peeking at me.

The lovely couple arguing about something.

The north marsh had more than the usual amount of oystercatchers.

I don't know why there were so many oystercatchers hanging around the north beach marsh in late June. They should have been off nesting. Or at least walking around with their newborns. It was the end of June last year when the famous oystercatcher babies were found wandering around the same area with their parents. No such luck this year. I missed out on all of the plover babies this year. I had read that there were at least 2 that had been running around the area but I never could find them. It really was a needle in a haystack search. Anyway, another hot day at the beach. My life is so rough.

Fort Desoto birds and a new duck

My first red breasted merganser sighting. We don't get these too often in central Florida. This is the first I've heard of one being in the Tampa bay area.

Little sanderling flapping after a bath.

Black bellied plover in not-quite breeding colors. Stomach is still light colored.

Another black bellied plover that is in full breeding color.

A little corner behind the roped off area that is full of birds. Looks like a lot of royal terns and plovers. Maybe some dowitchers in there as well. I had heard red knots were at the park but I didn't see any when I was there a couple of weekends ago.

Dowitchers sleeping. Nothing like a nice nap on the beach. Although, I wouldn't want to do it standing on one leg.

Birds on the causeway - Skywatch Friday

Another stop on the Courtney Campbell causeway during my drive home from work two weeks ago. I'm really going to miss these now that the time has changed and it's a dark trip home.  The above was a flock of skimmers that took off when a jogger went running by. At first I was mad at the jogger for disturbing the birds but it did make for a nicer picture.

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Cute little plover watching me.

A small group of marbled godwits trying to sleep. I think I was keeping them up even though I wasn't too close.

Finally, the sun went down and the moon came out. I took this on the causeway with my 300mm lens handheld.

Dowitchers walking along the shore after sunset.

Sanderling running for cover after dark. I used my flash on this one.

You can usually find at least one night heron on the causeway. This was an immature.

So many birds on the causeway.

Willet taking a stroll on the causeway.


Lone oystercatcher hanging out with a few laughing gull friends.

Dowitchers trying to sleep. It was getting dark.

There have been lots of plovers around lately.

Last week I stopped off on the Courtney Campbell Causeway on the way home from work to see what kind of birds are around. Pinellasbirds.com has been reporting lots of shorebirds moving through the area. There were a handful of shorebirds along the causeway but not tons that had been there the week before. We're very fortunate in our little section of the gulf. I've been following Drew Wheelan's blog, http://birding.typepad.com/gulf/ about the Gulf Coast Oil Crisis and I wish there was some way we could direct all of the migrating birds here. I guess they wouldn't be able to read big signs that say "All birds fly east to Tampa". It makes it even more important that we protect the ones that visit or live here.

As usual, there was an osprey hanging out on a lamppost. It was starting to sprinkle as I was leaving so I quickly stopped my car on the access road and took this picture out the window.