Canaveral National Seashore, 8/25/2012

Sandwich Tern

I've lived in Florida for over 2 years, and I've never walked the seashore on Merritt Island to photograph birds and wildlife.  But today I broke my normal routine and decided to give it a try, and I couldn't be happier.  Photographically speaking, I think I had one of my best days on the island.  In the parking lot, I found two Eastern Kingbirds, and then shortly after walking onto the beach, I found a Piping Plover, which I wrote about in my last post.  But I also found many other terns and shorebirds there.  I also found a couple Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, Semipalmated Plovers, Sanderlings, Royal Terns, Forster's Terns, Black Terns, a couple Common Terns and a Sandwich Tern.

Black Tern

Black Tern

Royal Terns
(the immature one is begging for food, but mom will hear none of it)

The beach wasn't crowded, the birds weren't very afraid of me, and the lighting was pretty good.  This made it easier for me to crouch down and get a pretty good angle on the birds.

Sanderling

Ruddy Turnstone

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Willet

Oh, I almost forgot--the Eastern Kingbird.

Eastern Kingbird

Here's a list of the species I saw today at the Canaveral National Seashore on Merritt Island.
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Anhinga 1
Brown Pelican 2
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 2
Black-bellied Plover 3
Semipalmated Plover 3
Piping Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Willet 3
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 4
Laughing Gull 25
Caspian Tern 1
Black Tern 4
Common Tern 2
Forster's Tern 1
Royal Tern 15
Sandwich Tern 1
Rock Pigeon 2
Eastern Kingbird 2
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Fish Crow X
Northern Mockingbird 2
Eastern Towhee 1