What a Wrack!

Nothing about today shouted it would be a great day to head to the beach. None the less, that is where we ended up. We even deviated from our usual stomping ground, Jetty Park, but only by a mile. The tot and I stopped off at a small park, loaded the wagon, and headed up the beach. While my son searched for buried treasures, I searched for birds. The weather has been poor the last few days, so I was hoping something unexpected might show up.

As we entered the beach, it was kind of hard miss the massive wrack line that spanned as far as we could see. We headed north, toward Jetty Park, which was a possible destination, so long as the threat of rain remained low.

Semipalmated Plover

I was happy to see that the abundance of sea debris attracted an abundance of shorebirds.

nonbreeding Sanderling

breeding Sanderling

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper?

breeding Ruddy Turnstone

It was a good idea to watch your step today...

Luckily we avoided any painful steps...

Coming into to the port...

 Have a relaxing weekend!

(This little fellow fell out of an oak tree in my yard and landed a few feet from me...thankfully not on me)

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!

A Few More Beach Birds

We spent another morning at Jetty Park on Friday. Not only did we enjoy a beautiful morning, but there were plenty of birds to enjoy as well! 

Black Skimmer

This Black Skimmer looked like some of us feel by Friday! While it looks like this Skimmer may have crashed and burned, it is actually just resting. That large bill gets heavy!

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer

Last week there was quite a bit of skimming action going on, but this week, with the exception of a few joining the group, the Skimmers were all resting. I counted 32 of them with 8 being juveniles.

Willet

This lone Willet was practicing its one legged balancing skills.

Magnificent Frigatebird

This juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird took a brief break from soaring the high skies to make a low pass along the beach where the large group of Terns, Gulls, and Skimmers were resting.

After a quick check of the beach action, the Frigatebird was gone. This is the second Frigatebird I've seen at Cape Canaveral in past month.

Red Knot

This nonbreeding Red Knot was foraging in the swallow tide with two others. Other birds that we observed include Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns, Least Terns, one Long-billed Dowitcher, one Semipalmated Plover, and numerous Sanderlings.

A Few Peeps

While at the beach in Cape Canaveral this past weekend,  I came across a few peeps. This poor little one looked like it was as disgusted by the trash as I was.

These are Sanderlings (thank you Mia of http://www.onthewingphotography.com/wings/)

There were about ten Sanderlings, some in breeding colors, scattered in with the terns.

There was also this group of four larger shorebirds, which maybe nonbreeding Red Knots, Knot sure though,  keeping to themselves. One was banded with a red flag.

This little Sanderling was having some bill envy!

One tired peep!

Beach Babes

My tot and I took an early morning jaunt to the beach yesterday. He fit right in as there was quite a variety of youngsters around. We counted around 50 Black Skimmers on the beach, with about 5 of them being juveniles. The Skimmers were resting most of the time, but occasionally they would go out  for a quick skim.

The beach was most heavily populated with terns, including numerous Royals, a handful of Sandwiches, and one Forster's. Several of these juvenile appeared to demonstrate behaviors that parallel those of our young children. This young Royal was definitely making its needs known...."mom, I'm hungry!"

"MOMMM, I'M hungry!!!"

This young one had to touch everything it could get its bill on. From this angle, it looked like the tern was attempting to assault the sandpiper. (note~the Sandpiper's identify has been concealed for its own protection).

This lone Forster's Tern, which, as you can see, is much smaller than a Royal Tern, just kept to himself.

This juvenile Sandwich Tern wasn't up to much.

This is also a juvenile Sandwich Tern (I think) but it had some interesting looking legs that were orange and black.

And the mini birder finding his own birds.