Beach Birds

 The Least Terns have returned to the area! I saw my FOY Least Tern on Easter morning along the Indian River near my house. This week I saw a dozen of them at the beach near Jetty Park. These tiny terns are rather boisterous and I usually detect their presence upon hearing their distinctive calls. Luckily for this Least Tern, very few gulls were at the beach today so it wasn't harassed when it arrived on the beach with a fish!

Over the past two months, the Royal Terns have been developing their breeding plumages. Breeding plumages can only mean one thing!

Courtship appears to be going well!

Among the large group of Royal Terns and Black Skimmers, there was this lone Sandwich Tern. The tern is also developing its black cap.

I've been to Jetty Park twice over the past two weeks and both times there have been ten or more banded Royal Terns among the large flock. I've only been able to read a few of the many numbers on the bands.

Today, I saw this banded Ruddy Turnstone. The colored flags are much easier to read!

As I walked along the surf, the Skimmers were making their way to the water to cool off.

One skimmer made its way to the water followed by the entire flock...one at a time!

Ponce Inlet & Smyrna Dunes Park 1/2/13

1/1/13 Sunrise
 Indian River 

I met up with my first bird of the year New Year's morning as I walked out on a dock along the Indian River at sunrise. The Great Blue Heron and I were equally startled by our unexpected encounter.  Brown Pelicans, Cormorants, Laughing and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, hundreds of Lesser Scaups, Belted Kingfisher, and Ospreys were also observed.

Ponce de Leon Lighthouse

My son and I headed out Wednesday morning for a day trip up the coast. Our first stop was at the Ponce Inlet, which is just south of Daytona Beach. We walked out on the fishing pier scanning the calm ocean waters as well as the rocks along the jetty for birds.

Snowy Egret

We saw this Snowy Egret with an injured foot at the entrance of pier. It later made its was to the end of the pier where it tried to get a free hand out from the fishermen. Ruddy Turnstones were the only birds we saw along the rocks. We saw about a dozen Northern Gannets fishing offshore. 

Ring-billed Gull

On the beach there was a large, mixed flock of Terns, Gulls, and Skimmers.

Royal Tern 

Next we headed south to Smyrna Dunes Park, which is on the other side of the inlet.

 We walked along the 2 mile boardwalk that winds through the dunes. We only saw a few birds, Loggerhead Shrikes and Palm Warblers. We saw quite a few Gopher Tortoise burrows, many of which had Tortoises nearby.

We came across this pair that was engaging in some interesting courtship behaviors. They initially stood about 5 five feet part with the male (I think) bobbing his head rapidly up, down, and  sided to side.

He then approached the other tortoise who retreated into her shell.

The male pushed his head into the other tortoise's shell and began pushing her around. The female tried to leave with the male following close by.

They both went tumbling into the burrow.

The male quickly came back out. He then walked around, ate some leaves, and decided to return to the burrow....

And wait....

We walked by about 20 minutes later and he was still waiting.