A morning on the beach

On October 8, 2025September 9, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

At the end of May I was walking out towards north beach at Fort Desoto Park. I looked back before stepping on the beach and saw that the sun was rising fast. I could see the silhouette of the osprey nest.

Zooming in it looked like one of the baby osprey was being fed.

I walked back towards the nest and could get a better shot of the two almost grown babies sitting with a parent. The baby on the left was pulling a fish apart.

A pretty willet in his breeding feathers was the first shorebird I saw.

Farther up the beach I ran into the 2 juvenile oystercatchers. These guys were growing up fast having hatched at the end of April. They were banded recently with YC6 & YC7.

They were both just walking the beach together.

Mom was close by.

Another oystercatcher showed up and Mom started screaming at it (it wasn’t Dad). Mom chased the interloper far down the beach.

The babies knew there was danger and they both hunched down into a sand holes and stayed there until Mom got back.

I think this was Dad that came back first because the babies ran to him.

Out at the far north beach tip I could see big boats out in the gulf.

Both parents were on the osprey nest when I got back to the parking lot. This was a great nest, sitting low and right in the parking lot.

Tiny rare babies growing up on the beach

On August 16, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

It was May 1st and I was back at Fort Desoto Park early. The sun was already up when I drove over the bridge into the park. I had a feeling the oystercatcher eggs might have hatched earlier this week so I wanted to get out on the beach early.

I had a short hike out to the oystercatcher nest but I got distracted by the spoonbills feeding in the tidal pool just off the parking lot. There were also several tricolored herons feeding.

I don’t see yellowlegs here often so I had to stop for a shot of it as well.

I made it out to the nesting area and the babies were already on the move. The area had been roped off so people wouldn’t trample through the nesting area and the parents were feeding the babies inside the roped area. There were three eggs but only two hatched. One hatched late Tuesday, one hatched Wednesday and I was there early Thursday morning.

They were so tiny and hard to spot across the roped off area. They stayed close to the parents as one parent would take off and then come back 5-10 minutes later with food. I was taking these with my 180-600mm zoom lens and they are cropped so they were really far away.

As we waited for the parents to bring in food to the babies we got distracted by the reddish egrets coming by including the white morph one.

Skimmers flying by.

Mom had a juicy piece of food in her beak, maybe a piece of clam.

After a while the babies got tired and plopped down for a long nap so I headed out. There were a handful of photographers there and several bird stewards watching the area so people don’t get too close. The bird stewards are all volunteers and keep watch over the nest and these rare babies while they grow up making sure they are safe from the tourist crowds.

There was an osprey nest in between the beach and the parking lot so I stopped for a few minutes and caught both babies looking at Mom.

A last trip to the beach for the summer.

On September 23, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was early June and I was back out on the beach at Fort Desoto Park early in the morning. It had been 2 weeks since my last trip and I was hoping to find the baby oystercatchers again to see how much they had grown.

The first thing I spotted was a lone roseate spoonbill.

Then I found 2 of the baby oystercatchers. It took me a while to find them since they blend in so well. At first they were sleeping but then one got up and walked around.

I realized there was another area roped off near the lagoon. Closer to the water I could see both oystercatcher parents with the 3rd baby.

After a few minutes later both parents started to take a nap.

The smallest baby was wandering around while the parents slept. At this point I plopped down on the sand to take a break as well.

Eventually the parents and 3rd baby made their way back to the lagoon and joined the other 2 babies. They all walked around for a few minutes and then hunkered down for a nap again so I headed down the beach to see what else I could find.

This is a common sight along this area of the beach. Beach patrols go out and mark off turtle nests. They can usually find them by the drag of the Mom’s weight back to the water and the big hole her body makes as she lays the eggs. All of the nests are recorded and dated and they keep track of when they may hatch. Since they hatch at night and the park is closed at night the babies aren’t usually disturbed trying to get to the water.

Someone’s artwork in the sand.

I was there early enough to have the beach almost to myself. There was a few other photographers there as well.

When I was leaving I found these nanday parakeets near the parking lot.

I didn’t make it back out to the park this summer. It’s just too hot and there hasn’t been much sighted during this time. I’m hoping the white pelicans will be back in October and I’ll make the trip if I hear they are back.

AE and Archie have triplets!

On August 24, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I was out at Fort Desoto Park with a few other photographers early on a Monday morning looking for oystercatcher babies. We didn’t find them in the roped off lagoon area where they had been seen for a few days before. As we got farther to the north tip of the beach we saw an adult fly onto the beach in an area with reeds growing.

We stood there for a few minutes looking into the grassy area and saw them. Triplets! They were buzzing around the area quickly and it was hard keeping up with them. We were all standing quietly across the beach so these are all super cropped up. They aren’t quite as sharp as I would have liked and I was wishing that I had lugged my heavy 500mm lens up there but I wasn’t sure how far we would have to walk so I had brought my lighter 100mm – 400mm lens instead.

The parents were busy bringing in food for them. Three mouths is a lot to feed. The tiniest one finally got a bite and would not let them get it from him.

A little sibling rivalry going on.

AE (named after her red bands on her legs) is the Mom. She was banded as a chick in Georgia and showed up here in the area in 2017 and has stayed since then. Her mate has been named Archie by the local photogs. They have had chicks for the last 2 years. In July of 2022 I didn’t get down to see them until the babies were much older. You can see that post here. They had 3 more babies last spring but I did not make it down there to see them so this year I was able to get them early.

Archie was bringing in more food. Archie spent most of the morning flying in with food while Mom watched the little ones. They eventually plopped down in the tall grass to nap so I headed back down the beach. Because this is a busy area of the beach, this little grassy area was roped off later that day. They stayed here for a few days before heading back to the lagoon.

Breakfast with Mom and Dad

On September 10, 2022August 11, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It’s not often I walk out on the beach and there are the birds I’m looking for. The oystercatcher Mom and juvenile were feeding right next to a snowy egret along the shoreline at Fort Desoto.

There were two juveniles with the parents and each one stayed close to a parent. The babies were almost as big as the parent but their feathers were not as black, their beaks were not as bright red and they didn’t have those beautiful yellow eyes yet. I sat down on the sand and watched the parents get some icky blob and feed it to the little ones over and over.

It was hard to get the entire family in one shot. I walked back on the beach a bit and was able to get both parents feeding the babies.

A couple of times the babies were able to find their own breakfast. They were watching everything Mom and Dad were doing.

They kept moving along the shoreline, staying busy eating.

At one point another bird came close and one of the parents flew off and chased it away. Here you can see that this one is banded with a red AE. She is the Mom and was banded in Georgia back in 2012. She has been a regular at Fort Desoto since 2017. The babies were born on Shell Key and didn’t make it over to the main beach here until they were old enough to fly over with their parents in early July.