Snowy Egret -- St Pete Beach

All of these photographs of the Snowy Egret were taken
at sunset along St Pete Beach, Florida.
This Egret has one injured leg, but he did fine with it.
We saw him several different days along the edge of the water.

Ruddy Turnstone at St Pete Beach

You know I struggle sometimes when I first see a bird. I thought this was a Wilson's Plover, but with Hap's help it has now been identified as a Ruddy Turnstone, which I even had a hard time finding in the book after having the name. Thank you Hap, yet again. The beak does not match the gulls, and notice the yellow legs.

Aren't those feathers just beautiful?

These photographs were taken October, 2008 at St Pete Beach, Florida.

My husband keeps telling me they are just gulls when I stop to photograph the shorebirds, then I get home to the computer and see a bird in the crowd that is different than all the others. I am sure all of you have somebody that has to tag along as you stop and photograph everything in sight. My husband is real patient with me, didn't mean to sound like he isn't. He just thinks all shorebirds are the same.

Great Egret at Lake Seminole Park

The Great Egret is a beautiful bird, not as large as the Great Blue Heron,

but every bit as impressive.

The top photo was taken when I still just had my point and shoot digital, in February 2008.

The rest of the photos were taken October 2008.

All of these photos were taken at Lake Seminole Park.

Today and tomorrow I am going to have several post, comparing the white egrets and herons I have photographed in Florida.

Ring Billed Gull at St Pete Beach

This photograph of the Ring Billed Gull was taken February 2008 at St Pete Beach.

We should be in the Panama Canal today! Woohoo!

Willet at St Pete Beach

The Willet always catches my eye.

We don't see the Willet at St Pete Beach in the summer when we are there.

But we seem to always see them in the fall and winter.

The top 4 photos were October 2008, the last was taken February 2008.

This last photo of the Willet was taken with my point and shoot. I was very pleased to capture this. The Willet is a fast runner along the beach, so I was very happy to get him with something in his mouth. The other photos were taken with my Canon D-SLR. Teresa has this last photograph framed in her home, in the room she has decorated with shells.

We will be at Aruba today,

hopefully seeing a beautiful beach we have never experienced before.

Double Crested Cormorant Basking in the sun

After bathing the Double Crested Cormorants sun with their wings outstretched to dry.

Double Crested Cormorant Bathing

Click to enlarge.

Black Skimmer at St Pete Beach

These are Black Skimmer flying along the edge of St Pete Beach. It was close to sunset, so the light wasn't great. Just got this one, and it is cropped. There were people in the water, didn't want to show them.

Gulls along the beach

It has been a Gull day. But this is the last post of the gulls unless I took more on this trip. Just have to wait and see.

Did better at this than I ever would have with the point and shoot. Sure am glad I was able to get my Canon D-SLR.

Gulls at St Pete Beach

This 2nd one is at sunset. Like the way the light is reflecting on the gull. This photo might have been taken at Maderia Beach instead of St Pete Beach. I did take some sunset photos at Maderia. Notice in this photograph you can see some color on the tip of his bill. I think this are Laughing Gulls, but still not sure. Several of you have probably left me info on the earlier post (hopefully).

Can also see the the color at the end of his bill in this photograph.

Gulls fishing

I hope you can enlarge this so you can this. As the birds would dip close to the water the fish would jump out of the water all at once. You can see the ripples in the water.

These were taken at the same time as some of the earlier post. We were at the end where the people go to fish.