Saturday, August 21, 2010

Shorebirds on the causeway

Young royal tern making a racket.

First year least tern that's been banded. I couldn't see the numbers on these bands.


Another least tern with only one band.


Marbled godwit.

Cute little plover.
The Courtney Campbell Causeway is starting to get an influx of different shorebirds. I stopped by there after work one day last week when it was about to rain so there wasn't too many people on the small beach on the Clearwater side. Lots of young birds there that aren't in full adult colors yet. The least tern's beak will turn yellow after it's first year. Migration season is starting so I'm going to try and hit this little beach and Gandy beach after work for the next couple of weeks to see if I can find some different birds. I heard common terns and gull-billed terns hanging around so I'm going to try and find them.

2 comments:

  1. What a handsome least tern in that second pic! I wasn't sure what you were talking about with "bands" --- until I noticed the little ID bands around their little legs. That's so interesting. SDo you know who's tracking them?

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  2. What a beautiful post DIna. I loe the least tern shots but all of them are really beautiful... Got to use the oportunity when not a lot of people are around and you did it well!

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