Merritt Island NWR & Cape Canaveral Seashore

Hello,

Wow, just one more day and March will be over. I am looking forward to April, the springs birds and visiting my old favorite Maryland birding spots. Since returning home, I have not been out much due mostly to the weather. I miss the Florida weather, sunny and warm. So I hope you do not mind seeing more Florida photos.

A pretty Roseate Spoonbill seen at Merritt Island NWR

Another Roseate Spooonbill, maybe a young one. The coloring was more whitish then the pretty pink.

Also at Merritt Island NWR, a group of Coots is called covers or a raft.

A flock of Red Knots at Cape Canaveral Seashore.

Terns on the beach at Cape Canaveral Seashore.

A pretty sky and reflection

Be kind, be thoughtful, be genuine, but most of all be thankful! 

My thankful list for today:

I am thankful for my health. It is not perfect but it could be worse.
I am thankful for today.
I am thankful for warm weather.


 Thank you for your visit and comments on my post. Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead!

Thanks to Michelle for the meme Thankful Thursday

I am also linking up to Skywatch Friday, I hope to see you there.

Thank you to Sylvia, Yogi and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday.

Red Knot

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and and NC Sue Wordless

I hope you can join in and share your photos, I look forward to the wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Red Knot from our visit to the Delaware shore. The first couple of weeks of May is a awesome time to visit the Delaware beaches to see the shorebirds migrating and the horseshoe crabs laying their eggs. The Red Knot is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

It can be fun trying to pick out a certain species of bird that is hanging out with a group of various shorebirds. I was looking for the Red Knot and in the center of the photo above is my Red Knot, the larger shorebird with the reddish head and neck.  It is 10 inches tall compared to the 8 inch Dunlin also seen in the photo.

The shot above has three Red Knots along with the Laughing Gulls, Dunlins  and some other little peeps. Can you find the 3 Red Knots, they kind of form a triangle in the photo.

I see one Red Knot is the photo above, third bird down from the Ring-billed Gull. The size difference between the gull and shorebirds is amazing.

I managed to find one Red Knot standing out in this group of birds, do you see it? But, there could be more, they are so close together.

And I think I see three Red Knots in this shot of the birds in flight, do you see the Red Knots? Seeing the reddish color on their fronts help to pick them out of a crowd. The birds with the black spot on their bellies are the Dunlins.

I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Birding Bombay Hook and Delaware

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and  Our World Tuesday

I have been posting so many photos from my trip I have been ignoring other outings I have been on since being home. We visited the Delaware shore and the Bombay Hook NWR the weekend of the Super Moon.

 Above Bonaparte's Gulls, Dowitchers, Super Moon, Swallow at the Dupont Nature Center, last bottom right more Dowitchers.

The mating season of the horseshoe crabs happens during the spring full moon when the tides are high. The female horseshoe crab will dig a hole in the sand and deposit her eggs and then the male will fertilize the eggs with his sperm. Nature is cool. Somehow the migrating shorebirds, especially the Red Knots find their way to the Delaware shore to feast upon these horseshoe crab eggs. Apparently, the birds know the schedule better than I. We were a few days to a week early to see the large count of shorebirds. But, I was happy to see all the Dunlins with their spotted black bellies, the Ruddy Turnstones, Dowitchers and hundreds of gulls.

 From a distance it was hard trying to id all the smaller shorebirds mixed in with the gulls. But, I did see a few Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones and lots of Dunlins.

During this visit we also make a quick stop at the Bombay Hook NWR. The wildflowers looked beautiful and enjoyed seeing more birds.

The Yellow Crowned Night Heron  was seen near the Black Crown Night Heron rookery. The BC Night Herons were perched in trees between the leaves so it was difficult to see them much less take any photos. I did count at least 7 BC Night Herons but I am sure there were many more.

 The wild irises were gorgeous.

We saw many BC Night herons, Great Egrets, GB Herons, Snowy Egrets,  along with Dowitchers and more Dunlins.

Back at home we were able to see the full moon setting over our lake.


To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday. 
Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and thanks to the hosting group at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post and I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

Ruddy Turnstone and Red Knots

Bird Photography Weekly #72 to see more great birds photos go to:
bird-photography-weekly-72

These are two of the birds I look forward to seeing again this spring. On the Delaware shore during the first spring full moon the horseshoe crabs lay their eggs and then the feast begins.

                                  Ruddy Turnstone on a Horseshoe Crab

                                 RedKnots

Pictures are from my ARCHIVES they were taken last spring.

 Tens of thousands of Redknots and Ruddy Turnstones and other shorebirds feast on the eggs from the horseshoecrabs. I was amazed at how many Redknots there were, I couldn't possibly count them all. I know these are not the best photos but they just really show how many Red Knots were there. This was only one section of the shore there were more along the beach.


                                  Ruddy Turnstones, please click to see a larger image of the different birds.

RedKnots and a some Laughing Gulls

A multiple meme entry this week as this is also my Camera Critters post. Tos see more great Critters go and visit Misty Dawn at camera-critters

This is my entry for Outdoor Wednesday, to see more great photos go and visit Susan at A southern daydreamer

Also to see more birds and other animals visit The Friday Ark

Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your nice comments.