1/15 Birds of a Feather . . . .

Well, they almost flock together.  I went for a short beach walk today.  The wind is down a bit, but it is still cold and cloudy.  Here are some of the birds I saw.  If you look closely at this photo, you will see a large grouping of several kinds of shorebirds.

 

These are Black Skimmers.  They are fairly large birds and have distinctive black and orange bills.

 

These are fairly common Laughing Gulls.  Note that all birds are facing north, which is where the cold wind is coming from.

 

 

The birds with the black behind their eyes are Forster's terns.  The one in the center back with the orange bill and black ruff around the back of his head is a Royal Tern.

This is a Ruddy Turnstone.  He is searching for insects and tiny bits of sea life among the breaking waves. 

 

 This is a Willit in non-breeding plumage.  Normally, it would have more brown and a bit of red on it.

 

Waves are smaller than the 6-7 footers we had yesterday, but they are still fairly large. 

 

You can see the top of my vehicle from the beach.  Gamble Rogers is the only state park in Florida, other than in the Keys, where you can camp this close to the beach.  Very, very difficult to get reservations, however.  I had to click my mouse button three seconds before this site opened up at 8:00 a.m. EST last winter while I was in Nevada.  This meant getting up at 4:30 a.m. PST--not easy for me!  Well worth it, however. 

     

I can't see the beach from my site, but there is a terrific view of the ocean!  Put my vinyl mat out to reduce the amount of sand I track in.