Tag: dunlin

A morning out on the beach

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

Another sunrise at Fort Desoto Park in late April.

As I was leaving the East Beach area after taking a few sunrise pictures I passed two osprey. Both had big fish for breakfast.

A great crested flycatcher was sitting up high watching the sun come up.

When I got out to North Beach I saw a reddish egret right away. He was busy fishing for his breakfast in a tidal pool.

I found another one farther up the beach but this one was right into the sun.

A young black bellied plover stands in front of the sleeping red knots.

Red knots are migrating birds and only stop over for a short time to refuel on their way back and forth between their breeding grounds in the northern most part of the continent to the far tip of South America. This trip I was able to catch many of them in their reddish orange breeding colors.

A red knot surrounded by 3 black bellied plovers, two were just starting to get their black bellies for the summer breeding season.

A cute little dunlin was poking around in the wet sand for a snack.

A young herring gull, strutting on the beach with those pink legs, was going to find out that the piece of seaweed was not a good snack.

A big boat passing by the pier.

A crown conch in the shallow edge of the water at low tide.

The dolphins were swimming around the fishing pier trying to steal fish from the fishermen.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom LinkupOpen every Tuesday! Get those posts seen and make others happy! Come join the #happynowlinkup #bloggers

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

Sleeping shorebirds

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

It was a quiet morning on the Dunedin causeway and I noticed a lot of sleeping shorebirds. After my walk I got my camera out of my car and started snapping the shorebirds. I found a lone black bellied plover mixed in with a lot of dowitchers. When I cropped this up I noticed the little dunlin on the right.

I usually only see large flocks of laughing gulls here so it was great to see all of the dowitchers sleeping together. Some were trying to nap and some were feeding. There were a few dunlins and ruddy turnstones mixed in as well.

My camera could only catch a small portion of them at a time.

Some were flying in and out of the sleeping group.

A little farther down the beach I found a lone skimmer.

A pelican cruises right above the water.

Out on the beach

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

Out on the beach at Fort Desoto Park in early May, I found a few black bellied plovers.

I don’t see dunlins very often and it was great to see them in their breeding colors.

The stars on the beach this morning were red knots. Most were in their breeding feathers as well. These birds only fly in for a short time to rest up and fuel up before heading north for the summer. They are one of the longest migration birds, flying 9,000 miles each way when migrating. They spend the summers breeding in the Canadian artic and the winters far south in South America. We are fortunate to see them stopping over here in between. I feel like I see less and less of them every year.

There were a few juveniles mixed in but most were in their red colors.

Looking into the sun, the bird on the left looks like he has a snack.

It was a beautiful morning to be out on the beach.