The view walking to the north tip of the beach at Fort Desoto Park. There’s a lagoon on the right and the gulf is far to the left.

Black skimmers were skimming for breakfast along the gulf.

There were rare red knots out on the beach. We only see them briefly when they are making their migration trip from the artic to the southern tip of South America.

A ring billed gull strutting along the beach.

Lots of shorebirds sleeping. These are willets and dowitchers.

I don’t often see dunlins in their breeding feathers. I seem them mostly in the winter when they are a drab creme color. There were a few in their brown and black feathers.

Nicknamed “mermaid necklaces” the above is an egg casing for whelk shells. The female created this casing as she lays her eggs in it. The eggs hatch and turn into shells and the casing dries up and ends up on beaches during storms.

Bonnie was standing out in the middle of the lagoon and the water only came up to her knees. It’s usually pretty shallow here. We were out trying to get pictures of the reddish egret that was feeding in the lagoon. I’m always a little nervous getting that deep in the water with my camera. One bad step in a hole and I could go down with my camera. I think I was only ankle deep when I shot this.