Sharing the Beach

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

Happy Memorial Day Weekend....God Bless and special thanks to all the veterans and our military men and women.

The Memorial Day weekend is usually the start of summer vacations and trips to the beaches. I wanted to remind bird lovers and beach lovers to help protect and still enjoy the shorebirds and the cute beach nesters.

This week my post is on some of the birds that nest on beaches. Since it is time for the beach nesting birds and summer is almost here my post is about protecting the beach nesters. There are some great tips for all beach lovers that are easy to follow.

 The Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers and the Terns are all birds that nest on the dunes. I have seen them at Cape May, Maryland Beaches like Assateague and at Chincoteague beach. I believe these birds nest on beaches up and down the eastern coast of the US.

 I saw this Florida Audubon poster which has some great tips on how to protect the beach nesting birds. These simple things should be done as long as the birds are nesting and the chicks are seen on the beaches ....not just for the holiday weekend. These suggestions should be followed by beach lovers not only from Florida but up and down the US coastlines. 

There are simple things listed that everyone can do to help protect these birds, their nest and the chicks. Above are some of my shots of the Piping Plovers.

Above is a photo of a Piping Plover seen at Curry Hammock State Park in the Florida Keys. I thought the Florida Audubon notice was perfect since I was sharing the Piping Plover I saw while in Florida. But, I would hope all the Audubon Chapters located on the East Coast of the US would have the same kind of notice protecting the beach nesting birds.

I hope you enjoyed my post and thanks for visiting my blog and post. I really appreciate your comment too.
Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more from  Our World Tuesday
 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  Thanks also for stopping by to see my post.  I wish everyone a happy week!

Birding Cape May

I hope everyone had a GREAT Mother's Day!!

For Mosaic Monday I have a little of my Cape May birding from last weekend. Hubby and I took an overnight trip to the Jersey shores last weekend and stopped at a few of the birding places that are known to be good in the spring time.


In this mosaic I have the Purple Martin birdhouse and the Cape May Lighthouse, Swallowtail butterfly, one of the many bunnies we saw,  a few baby geese, and the beach.

We practically had the beach to ourselves.

A mute swan on the trail, swan in flight, Terns and Laughing Gulls, Egret, Oystercatcher and a Coot

This a Great Egret you can id this Egret by the large yellow bill.

I hope you enjoyed my Cape May photos and to see more wonderful mosaics please visit Mary's Mosaic Monday.  A big thanks to Mary for hosting this fun meme and thank you for visiting my post. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

American Oystercatcher

My post  for World Bird Wednesday and Watery Wednesday and Nature Notes  is of the American Oystercatcher.  This bird nest on sandy beaches and barrier islands. It forages for clams, mussels and crabs in salt marshes, rocky coast and intertidal areas. They are brown in color above and have a white bottom and have a black hood. They have a stout red-orange bill which reminds me of a carrot.


I got to see this bird while visiting Chincoteague NWR, below are four of them in flight.

This one below is banded with a black band and numbered 4P

I think these two were a couple.





If you like birds and would like to see more please visit Springman's site at World Bird Wednesday and for more watery shots visit 2sweetnsaxy's Watery Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes


Thanks to Springman , Michelle and 2sweetnsaxy for hosting and thank you for stopping by to see my birds. Have a great week!

Birding Delaware's shore

I am linking up with Friday Ark   and Misty Dawn's Camera Critters Click on my links to visit these wonderful memes.

These are some of the birds I saw while birding with my friends on the Delaware Shore. We birded all day long at the Bombay Hook NWR and the DuPont Nature Center. 

Below is a mixture of gulls and terns. The Royal Terns will have dark legs and beaks

Cormorants and Terns

This one below is a young Forster's Tern. A non-breeding adult will have the black eye patch and orange legs.

Cormorants

I wasn't expecting to see a Brown Creeper land on the poles near the Terns and Gulls

Two American Oystercatchers with their carrot beaks

Thanks to the host of Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn for hosting Camera Critters. Also, thank you for stopping by to see my post.

American Oystercatcher

Click on photo for a larger image. If you click on this first photo you can see two Terns in the background.

The American Oystercatcher is a cool looking bird. I like to say it has a beak like a carrot. I've been able to see these birds many times at Cape May and Chincoteague on the beach and laying around the dunes. On my previous post about my visit to Avalon, NJ we saw a flock of American Oystercatchers. Probably the largest group of Oystercatchers I have ever seen.

You can view some wonderful birds and photos at bird-photography-weekly

The see more cute animals and birds go and visit The Ark

Thanks for stopping by to see my Oystercatcher.