Jan. 31, 2021 - St. Marks NWR - 2

Here are some more photos taken during my recent visit to St. Marks NWR.

The Killdeer is a 10½ inch shorebird, but it spends most of its time away from water. It can be found year-round in the southern half of the United States. During the summer, it nests over almost all of North America.

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Belted Kingfishers are notoriously hard to approach so I was happy to get this close to one sitting on an old piling near the lighthouse. This appears to be a male because a female would have a rusty band across her chest.

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A common bird at St. Marks is the American Coot. It’s a chicken-size bird with plain gray and black plumage. Accent colors include a snow-white beak with a partial ring around the tip, a red frontal shield on its forehead, and bright red eyes. It has large lobed feet; one of them is visible in this photo.

CootAmericanMarksNWR20210114

The winter plumage of the Forster’s Tern includes a black mask over each eye. When it molts into its breeding plumage, it will have a solid black cap that extends down the back of the neck. Its beak also turns orange and has a black tip. It can be seen flying low over the water, then hovering, before plunging in to catch a small fish.

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This Forster’s Tern landed on a picturesque stump, so I had to take a photo of that.

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This photo was not taken at St. Marks. It’s a sunrise seen from the porch of the house we are renting this winter. You are looking out over the Gulf of Mexico.

SunriseAbbeyfealeThePlantationGeorgeIsland20210106