A Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) walking the beach...

...from the Captiva Island, Florida posts.

Birding Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Shorebird ID is always tough for me because I don't get to see them that often, so when large flocks of assorted waders fly in, I really have to think. When trying to identify shorebirds, I focus on three things to start; leg color, bill shape, and height. Since I can't identify shorebirds yet by call, and I normally see them only in non-breeding plumage, sticking to the "big three" seems to be the best way for me to ID them.

A Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) walks the shore on Captiva Island in Florida.

Short-billed Dowitchers and Long-billed Dowitchers look a lot alike, but according to my "Birds of Florida" book by Pranty, Radamaker, and Kennedy, Long-billed Dowitchers are "restricted to fresh water during winter." Since it was the end of winter when I saw this bird, and he was standing where the land meets the sea, it was easy to deduce that this fellow was the short-billed version of the bird...

The Short-billed Dowitcher's field marks are pretty clear...a medium-sized shorebird with pale yellow legs and a very long, straight bill. Check!

...another determining field mark of a dowitcher is a black-and-white barred tail.

...the two yellow-legged Short-billed Dowitchers seem to be pointing at the tiny Dunlin in front of them. It's easy to see dowitchers are medium-sized birds compared to the tiny Dunlins or Sanderlings.

...for comparison, a Short-billed Dowitcher stands next to a Dunlin. (For an earlier post on Dunlins, click here.) Size, leg color, and bill shape are different between these two birds!

...not quite The Three Tenors, but these three Short-billed Dowitchers look dapper in the sun. Our little Dunlin doesn't seem to be able to keep his eyes open!

Sandwich Terns and what John James Audubon thought about them...

Birding Longboat Key, Florida

...continued from Thursday's post on the sweet little Sanderlings.

These three Sandwich Terns with their mustard-tipped bills quickly became favorites of mine during our stay in Florida. Because they were never far apart from each other and huddled together like they were old friends, I started thinking of them as The Three Tenors, and I would not have been surprised if they had broken out in song.

The early morning sunlight was still soft across the beach, but it was growing higher in the sky by the minute.

...face into the wind like a good little Sandwich Tern!

...even though the mustard-tipped bill has nothing to do with their name, it really does fit perfectly with Sandwich Tern!

Wanting to learn a little bit more about these cute little terns, I did a bit of googling, and came across an entry written by none other than John James Audubon himself! I had stumbled across the 1840 "First Octavo Edition" of John James Audubon's seven-volume set of "Birds of America," which is online and available to all on Audubon's site. Here is the intro to Audubon's entry on Sandwich Terns:

"On the 26th of May, 1832, while sailing along the Florida Keys in Mr. THRUSTON's barge, accompanied by his worthy pilot and my assistant, I observed a large flock of Terns, which, from their size and other circumstances, I would have pronounced to be Marsh Terns, had not the difference in their manner of flight convinced me that they were of a species hitherto unknown to me. The pleasure which one feels on such an occasion cannot easily be described, and all that it is necessary for me to say on the subject at present is, that I begged to be rowed to them as quickly as possible. A nod and a wink from the pilot satisfied me that no time should be lost, and in a few minutes all the guns on board were in requisition. The birds fell around us; but as those that had not been injured remained hovering over their dead and dying companions, we continued to shoot until we procured a very considerable number. On examining the first individual picked up from the water, I perceived from the yellow point of its bill that it was different from any that I had previously seen, and accordingly shouted "A prize! a prize! a new bird to the American Fauna!" And so it was, good reader, for no person before had found the Sandwich Tern on any part of our coast. A large basket was filled with them, and we pursued our course."

What a difference 178 years makes! To read the rest of this chapter, click here. To access the book's online table of contents, click here.

...related to this subject, I just finished reading a book called "No Woman Tenderfoot; Florence Merriam Bailey, Pioneer Naturalist," by Harriet Kofalk. Florence Merriam Bailey was a proponent of studying live birds in their natural environment instead of studying birds that had been shot. She also organized the Smith College Audubon Society and led students to boycott the manufacturing of feathered hats, the millinery style that was killing more than five million birds a year. Through her writing and flyers, she helped turn the tide and no doubt saved many of our beautiful herons and egrets from extinction. It's an interesting book written in 1989. (My cousin, Mary Ann, found this book in a used book store and sent it to me. Thanks, Mary Ann!)

...taken later in the day on a different beach and in much brighter sunlight.

I love that face, and who can resist their mustard-tipped bills?