Tierra Verde, FL ~ Fort DeSoto Park

Sanderlings 

Black-bellied Plover

We were really looking forward to a great trip to Fort DeSoto as we'd been here before one November. We were disappointed to see few birds though we have a pretty good looks at the Great Horned Owl and the owlet.

Great Horned Owl

Yellow-throated Warbler

Wilson's Plover

Corolla Beach, NC

The beach along the Atlantic Ocean in Corolla is miles long and just gorgeous. Today was gray and overcast with intermittent drizzle, not a good day to be sunbathing on the beach.  Early this morning I took a walk along the beach looking at the Sanderlings feeding on the edge of the water and Brown Pelicans flying overhead.  I found some interesting cloud formations, looked at the shells and some of the surfers in the water.  I found some great shells and pieces of shells that will be good for my art quilting.

Sanderling Feeding

Brown Pelican

Waiting for waves

Birding - Stone Harbor Beach

This time of year it's fun to go to the beach about 5pm as the day is getting cooler and the light is getting better for photographing the birds. The birds are arriving back from their Arctic breeding grounds and most are hanging around for a while before heading off to their wintering grounds. Western Willet (Pictured above)  Sanderlings (Pictured below)

Cook's Beach on a great day of birding

After checking out Benny's Landing Road where I finally saw my first Clapper Rail of the season I cut across the island to Cook's Beach hoping to see some Red Knots feasting on the horseshoe crab eggs. Cook's Beach was having great flybys of mixed shorebirds though I saw no Red Knots in the mix. It looked like there were good numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, Sanderlings and a few Dunlin and Ruddy Turnstones.   Going back out the road I saw Willets, Snowy Egrets and a great Glossy Ibis feeding among the reeds in a pan.

The return of the Red Knots

May here along the Delaware Bay means the return of the spawning Horseshoe crabs which brings the shorebirds that feed on their eggs.  The birds that feed on their eggs are the Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings and Semipalmated Sandpipers.  It's an exciting time to see them all returning to Reed's Beach, Moore's Beach, Cook's Beach and the beaches along the Delaware Bay from the Villas and up past Fortescue.  Of course, the Laughing Gulls are always present and taking a good numbers of the eggs leaving less for the smaller birds that count on the protein from the horseshoe crab eggs to beef up for the trip to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.This phenomenon also occurs along the Delaware side of the Delaware Bay.  Here are some pictures of the birds flying and feeding along the shoreline on Reed's  Beach.  The third picture below shows the horseshoe crabs behind the birds that are feasting on their eggs.

The beach at Stone Harbor

I am still going strong and now it's afternoon where I have decided to chcek out Nummy Island and the Point at Stone Harbor. What I found were hundreds of Dunlin and Sanderlings on the 117th & 118th Street beaches.