Shorebirds at Fort Desoto

Sandwich terns. I think that first one is yawning.

This little bird was hopping around on one leg. If he had one raised it was well hidden and he hopped around for while.

Ring billed gull posing for me. I've just recently started seeing them again. We don't see them very often here in the summer.

Red knots feeding along the shore. Several of them are banded with lime green tags. I looked them up and reported them and one of them spends summers in New Jersey and winters at Fort Desoto. The other two had only been reported around the central gulf coast.

More busy red knots. The one on the left stuck his face all the way in the sand.

A couple of weekends before Christmas I headed down to Fort Desoto to look around. The morning started out cloudy but a little later the sun started peaking out. The was nothing unusual at the park but I was excited to see a small flock of red knots at the north end of the beach. They were walking right along the shoreline and not really paying attention to me. Luckily there wasn't anyone else around to spook them. I think the wind and clouds had kept people away. I watched them for a while and then later when I was editing the pictures, I noticed the green tags on several of the birds. I reported them on the Florida Shorebird alliance website, which takes you to the Bandedbirds link. It was fun to see where they had been. I still would like to get pictures of the red knots in their summer breeding colors (which turns them a burnt red or orange color). They are pretty rare to find here since they are mostly here in the winter and by then they are in the lighter colors.

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An after work walk around Fort Desoto Park.

Juvenile black bellied plover. I wish I had found this little guy when he just a baby. He would have been really cute and tiny.

Adult black bellied plover. He just kind of stood there like "What do you want?"

Snowy egrets and a great egret fishing off the jetty next to the fishing pier. The sun had gone down behind some nasty clouds.

Snowy egret got a fish!

"Mom, feed me" says the juvenile sandwich tern. Although he's probably big enough to fend for himself, they tend to beg for a while at that age.

Great blue heron thought he had a fish but it was just seaweed.

Cute raccoon hanging around the picnic area.

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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.

Shorebirds and Seabirds on Gandy beach

A little sandwich tern flying in to hang with the bigger royal terns.

Three smaller black terns with royal terns. All of these black terns were at various stages of molting.

Juvenile skimmer. This is the first time I've seen a young skimmer outside of the skimmer colony at Redington Shores beach. There were a few of them on Gandy beach.

Bye, bye.

Black tern preening.

I stopped by Gandy beach on the way home from work. It's pretty close by. The sun was going down so there wasn't much activity going on. All of the birds were getting ready for bed. Most were already sleeping and the rest were bathing or preening. There were only a few black terns on the beach even though I've heard there had been hundreds of them there recently. I'm not sure how long they'll stay. They don't live here year round.  Another quiet night so I headed home.

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An after work beach trip

Pelican hanging out before sunset. He looks like a juvenile. His feathers are so pretty.

Royal tern

Taking off.

Sandwich terns taking off.

Juvenile night heron turning from brown to gray. This was the first time I had seen a night heron that had just a few brown feathers left. He's almost an adult.

Just a few birds from my last trip to Redington Shores to see the baby skimmers. The beach had a few shorebirds on the beach right before sunset. I found the night heron hanging out at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. I was surprised to see the patch of brown still on him. I've never seen seen a night heron in mid molt. I've only seen the blue herons who start out white and then turn blue in mid molt. Night herons don't seem to show much emotion. They just sit there quietly.

Visit to the skimmer colony

"Where's my fish?!!!!!"

"I'll be flying soon."

"Mom, don't leave me."

Am I a juvenile common tern or forester's tern?

"I always sqwuak when I have a fish." said the sandwich tern.

"Storm's coming. We're outta here."

The Sunday after the 4th was a gloomy one. After spending a good bit of the weekend indoors doing chores I had to get out. I just decided to risk the rain. I jumped off the couch, grabbed my stuff and headed across town to check on the skimmer babies. I had been trying to get back there for over a week after work but every night it would rain. How depressing. It didn't rain while I was there but it was dark and gloomy. The skimmer babies were growing up. There were only a few tiny ones there. Most of them were almost as big as the parent but still in their creme and brown colors. They were so cute running around. One kept running way outside the roped off area and I kept trying to herd him back to the ropes. On a sad note, I did see 2 dead ones inside the roped off area. Not sure what happened. Where they abandoned and not fed? Where they sick when they were born?  I'm going to try and head back there a few more times to catch them growing up. Stay tuned.

A rare black tern sighting

Royal and sandwich terns hanging out together.

Sandwich terns taking a bath.

Black tern

Black tern turning from breeding (all black color) to non-breeding color.

Another black tern that was in full non-breeding color.

Short video of terns taking a bath.

I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were a few black terns on the Gandy bridge beach. It's fairly rare to see them in the Tampa bay area. They only come through here for a short time in the summer. Since I work close to the bridge, I stopped over there on my way home from work on one of the nights were it wasn't pouring down rain. There were large amounts of terns on the beach (when a dog wasn't chase them off the beach). I could only find a few black terns mixed in with other terns but I didn't see any that were in full black breeding color. Most of them were just changing feathers. I'm going to keep looking for that all black tern though.

I attached a short video of some terns bathing. I always like watching them swimming around in the water.

Terns getting ready for bed.

Royal tern being lazy. I probably could have stepped over him.

 I think they were watching a tennis match.

Sandwich tern with dinner.

Sandwich terns were taking a bath.

"If I just put my face in."

Royal tern flyby.

While I was hanging out with the skimmers, I walked around the other parts of the beach. The sun was an hour away from going down and I think the terns hanging out on the beach were getting ready for bed. All of the most common terns in the area were there: least, royal and sandwich. They were all hanging out together with a few laughing gulls mixed in. It's always fun to watch them take a bath. Although, taking a sandy bath does not sound good to me.