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.

Snowy Egret at St Pete Beach - October 2008

These Snowy Egret photos were taken on St Pete Beach,

when we were there in October 2008.

That trip we saw more than usual of the egret, herons, and pelicans on the beach.

I have been really busy filling greeting cards orders during the last week,

especially people planning for Mother's Day. Sorry for the rushed post here.

Right now I am going to meet some of the ladies at church

for a peaceful lunch before going to work this afternooon.

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.

Sea Urchin at St Pete Beach

We should be checking in at our timeshare at St Pete Beach about now. Jimmy will carry everything in and head for the beach. Partly just to walk the beach, but he always comes back with such great treasures. While we are in St Pete he always walks the full beach (from one end to the other) every day. No wonder we have so many shells. Sometimes I go with him, but most times I just take it easy poolside with a good book. I don't walk the whole beach, especially in February, too much wind for me.

Great Blue Heron looking to the sky

We found this place to visit in the evenings while at St Pete Beach that the Heron and Egrets visit regularly.It is rare to go there and not see at least one heron or egret.
What was strange about this evening in October 2008, was the eye was on the sky.
There were 2 Great Blue Heron there that evening, both were keeping their eye on the sky, not the water.

The reason they are always there is because they do so well with fishing.

Somebody failed to tell them you can't fish with your head up.

We turned to look-bet he thought "Got ya!!"

But we never did see anything.

I like all the body shots, guess they have trouble keeping their balance while trying to look at the sky. I have never seen under all those feathers before.

He almost appeared to have a broken wing at one point.

But they finally both flew and the show was over for one evening.

We will be at sea all day today.

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.

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.