Feb.23, 2014 - Snowy Plovers

Snowy Plovers are tiny (6½ inch) shorebirds. Here’s one of the six Snowys that I saw at Perdido Beach located at the far western edge of the Florida panhandle. Their winter plumage is very pale, helping them to blend in with the beach sand. This bird is just starting to molt into its summer plumage; note the few darker feathers on its forehead.
Plover Snowy Perdido Beach 20140208
Here’s another Snowy Plover from Perdido Beach and it’s much further along in getting its summer plumage. It has darker areas on the forehead, behind the eye, and on the neck.
Plover Snowy Perdido Beach 20140208
I also found some Snowy Plovers at St. George Island State Park. I walked along the beach and found 13 of them, one of the largest groups I’ve seen. This bird is still in winter plumage but others were in various stages of molting.
Plover Snowy George Island State Park 20140216
Snowy Plovers are so small they almost disappear when they hunker down in a shallow depression in the sand.
Plover Snowy George Island State Park 20140216
Many Snowy Plovers have been banded. This one has two bands on each leg. The left leg has a black band and a white band. The right leg has an obvious black band but it also has a silver band above the leg joint.
Plover Snowy bandedt George Island State Park 20140216
This is another Snowy I saw at Perdido Beach. It had one leg tucked up under its feathers and was hopping around on the other leg. I snapped the shutter at just the right time to catch it up in the air.
Plover Snowy Perdido Beach 20140208

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on March 4, 2014
Thanks Earl for these photos. Raya Pruner and I, Marvin Friel, with the Florida Park Service, have been banding SNPL since 2008 for Raya's Master's Thesis. There are indeed a lot of SNPL at St. George averaging about 25 to 30 nesting pair. The female Black White : Service Black is a prolific nester near the Sugar Hill Paviliion. In general, we've discovered that many of the SNPL are year around residents where as some like around 20% do get sighted in the winter on the peninsula of Florida. Hence, they are not big migrants. The birds you saw on Perdido Key that have bands are banded by Maureen Durkin for her Master's at GINS. We have been finding that SNPL are long lived. On Tyndall Air Force base, we have a bird that is 14 years old and many on Shell Island are up to 7 years old.

Feb.23, 2014 - Snowy Plovers

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