A tale of Dowitchers and Dunlins...

I realized that I haven't posted any of the ubiquitous little shorebirds that make the FL coast their home every winter. I confess to knowing virtually nothing about shorebirds when I arrived here six weeks ago. Basically, I knew that they were small, long legged, and ran on the beach. And I quickly learned that, in the winter when they are in their non-breeding plumage, they all look pretty much the same. I've spent way too many hours trying to figure out the identity of various little long-legged, brownish-gray, beach-running birds recently!

So, for those of you who might be thinking that the two birds in this photo are the same species ... wrong! The bird on the left is called a short-billed dowitcher and the one on the left is a smaller bird called a dunlin. This is my first sighting of a dunlin, so I wanted to be sure I recorded it for myself.

I drove up to Clearwater today and visited a small park that was so-so; then went across the causeway to Honeymoon Island for some exploration. HI is reputed to be a top birding location, but I have to say that I didn't really like it all that much. When I compare it to Ft. DeSoto ... well, it doesn't come close in my opinion. Maybe I missed something, but I just didn't think it was that great. That said, it will be worth a visit later in the winter when the osprey are nesting because they have something like 25 nesting pairs in the park, all along a hikable trail.

Three other pics from today posted on Flickr, starting HERE

The rest of my day was spent on office work and a couple of errands. I may take a quick run over to Seminole Lake at sunrise to see if I can find a good spot for a photo. We'll see...

Didn't get much sleep last night because my little fella, Rocket, has been walking around upstairs yowling recently (only at night). And, if that wasn't enough, last night we had not one, but TWO visits by the pack of coyotes. They must have gotten themselves something really good around 2 am because they were out their howling and yipping for a couple of minutes. That, along with ghostly cat yowls don't make for a sound sleep...

Thank you for sending my egret to the spotlight page yesterday - what a nice surprise! Since one of the things I try really hard to do is get birds doing something interesting (as opposed to just sitting around looking pretty), I especially appreciate the feedback on shots like yesterday's which show something "real." Nature ... not always pretty, but never fails to be fascinating!

Happy Thursday, people...

Debbi