Fort De Soto~Florida~Beach Birding

Howdee all,

I took massive amounts of photos at Fort De Soto two days ago..I think I will need to divide this up into at least ten posts..ha

We had such a delightful time.

The weather was super! It was nice to walk in the water and sand.

Great to see all the sunbathers~average age 70s! Very cool!

This is the pathway from the north end of North Beach..

You will see Wood Stork and other birds hanging out near the picnic area.

Looking out to the beach..

We walked to the south end of North beach to see some birds..

We were here the day before and saw many Marbled Godwit,one Long Billed Curlew and other assorted birds~  we went to see if they were still around..

The Curlew was still around…

But no Marbled Godwit.

We then searched for a reported Wilsons Plover in the area..

nope this is not a Wilsons~

Black-bellied Plover

Nope neither is this~Semi-palmated Plover

Ahh..here it is~we saw two Wilsons

Wilsons Plover

We walked on toward the small inlet

I thought I saw a few dead skimmers in the group of birds..

I went closer to see what was going on..

Silly Skimmers with Big Honkers and no eyes playing dead!

I think they look like black sea shells. Ha! Maybe they are disguising themselves as a sea shell.

I was told it has something do do with the combination of staying cool and that big heavy bill.

Oh, they do have eyes..I see one. :)

On the opposite side of the inlet were terns and a few gulls.

Royal terns and a cute couple sandwiched in the middle.

Sandwich Terns

Laughing Gulls in various stages of plumage.

Royal terns…many had opened bills like this one..I think must have something to do with cooling off.

I got a kick out of this Hair doo~ must take allot of gel!

Jeff and I walked on to another area and sat in the shade…This is what we were looking at..Clear shallow water..

Way in the distance on that white sand..I saw birds!

The water was pretty shallow and I walked as far as I could..then the water became dark and deeper~

Look what I found!

I walked closer…

Marbled Godwit, Oystercatchers, A White Ibis and Willets.

There were people walking in the area and the birds soon flew..

Darn!

We continued to rest and watch the birds from the shady woodland

A group of White Ibis..

Came romping in looking for something good to eat..

Tip toe thru the tulips..

ha..

A Reddish Egret flew in and did its fishing dance..

Check out the fishing Dance!

We had fun…just sitting and watching..but it was time to move on and explore more of the beach…

Stay tuned for more birds and beach~

Jeff and I leave the St. Petersburg area tomorrow and head south.

Destination~Sanibel!