Sunday, February 3, 2013

January 25-27, 2013 Florida birding

Did a quick trip to Florida to visit my parents on the gulf coast. The weather was beautiful with highs in the mid 20c compared to what I left -25c. Over the few days did a lot of beach walking and observed an interesting variety of water birds including Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, American Oyster Catcher, and lots of Brown Pelican. Since this was family visit my birding was limited but there were lots of birds in the neighborhood and we observed White Ibis, Wood Stork, lots of Eurasian Collared dove, a small flock of Nanday Parakeets and the usual Northern Mockingbirds. Each night at dusk a large variety of water birds would fly along the inter coastal waterway behind my parents condo to roost which included Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Snowy Egret and Great Egrets.



 
A group of adult Royal Terns.

 
Great Blue Heron


A winter plumage Forster's Tern .

 
An adult Forster's Tern.
 
 

The Black Skimmer is easy to recognize but it bill.


The Sandwich Tern is uncommon during the winter months.




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