Are you a western tanager?  No, just a yellow rumped warbler.

Of course, the western tanager would be much higher up in the trees and harder to spot. After two hours, she would not come down from the top of the trees.

This was the best that I got that morning. She’s now been there for a few weeks so I should go back and see if I can find her again.

Nice butt shot. There were at least 20 birders looking for this bird. After several hours she was spotted high up and stayed there. This is my western tanager.

After spotting the tanager in the trees by the parking lot, I headed over to the beach to see what I could find. I’m going with Forester’s tern on this one. He’s got the black “earmuffs” that a common wouldn’t have. Bill is slightly longer.  Seagull Steve, let me know if I’m wrong on this. I followed your comparisons here.

Wilson’s plovers on the beach.

Are these semipalmated plovers?  Those orange legs on the one in the back makes me think they are but they don’t have a lot of color in their face. Maybe the back one is a juvenile?

Stretching after a nap.

A royal tern staring at me.

Taking a bath in the salt water.

What’s this? This isn’t a tern or plover. There was a lone red breasted merganser walking up on the beach. Where were all of her friends? They usually aren’t alone. She preened for a few minutes.

And then took off down the beach.

Pelican flying by just as the sun was coming out.

It was a foggy morning at Fort De Soto in mid-January. I went down to the park looking for the western tanager. Anything else I found was going to be a bonus. Not much else at the park except the usual terns and pelicans. I did find the Franklin’s gull on this trip. The sun finally started coming out around lunch time. I was hungry so I headed for home.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday 

Also, check out more birds at Paying Ready Attention  for