February 1, 2009 - Florida birds and a sunset

Ring-billed Gulls are a very common sight here in Florida. Of the thousands of times that I have watched them, this is the first time I have seen one pulling a worm out of the sand. I was at St. George Island State Park one morning and I pulled up to a boat landing. The tide was low, so a lot of sand beach was exposed. While I sat there, this gull landed on the sand near me and was able to spot worms which I hadn’t been able to see. The gull grasped each worm, pulled it out of the sand, and proceeded to gobble it down. However, this worm wasn’t giving up without a fight!

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In Minnesota we are used to seeing Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches but here in Florida the Brown-headed nuthatch is the common species. They are about the size of a Red-breasted Nuthatch (4.5”). They tend to forage high in the pine trees so you often hear them before you see them. Their call has been described as sounding like a rubber squeaky toy and that is just about right. They are usually in small groups and they seem to chatter constantly. One of my books says that the name “nuthatch” comes from the word “nuthack” which refers to their habit of securing a nut in a crevice and hammering it open with the bill. This photo was taken at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.

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Snowy Plovers are pale little shorebirds. In this photo you can see how well they blend in with the light colored sand on the beach at St. George Island State Park. They inhabit The Gulf Coast and the Pacific Coat of the United States and many of them nest in those areas. However, range maps also show summer populations of Snowys in west Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Nevada. Those seem like odd places for a shorebird to be nesting but the dry sand habitat is what attracts these birds. In addition, Utah has the Great Salt Lake which probably seems very similar to the ocean. There is often disagreement about how to pronounce the word “plover” but one of my books says it rhymes with “lover”.

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Here’s another of those beautiful Gulf Coast sunsets. This time, however, I took the photo with my back to the setting sun. At a photography workshop, I learned that the blue color near the horizon is actually the shadow of the earth as the sun is setting. So, the next time you are enjoying a colorful sunset, take a moment to turn around and see what is happening behind you.

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