This is a tiny little bird, a Least Sandpiper - (Calidris minutilla).... another life time first for me. When I arrived here in Florida I had been hoping for waders and warblers on migration So far there has been very little evidence of migration, but during the last few days, particularly yesterday and today, I have been seeing more and more. Yesterday evening at the State Beach Park just up the road, "John U lloyd State Park", I was very pleased to see, at last, a flock of tiny waders feeding on the surf line in one of the little bays right at the far end and just before the inlet to Port Everglades. I knew immediately that this was going to include birds that I hadn't seen before because they were the smallest waders that I have ever seen before, but I was quite ignorant as to their exact identification. The majority , about a dozen in all, seemed to be very tiny, only the size of a sparrow. They were scurrying in the surf-line and compared to the tiny Sanderling that accompanied them, an inch or two smaller in length. I know that birders over here tend to group the 5 small sandpiper species together and simply call them "peeps" which is an odd approach to birding. For me it is important to be able to identify individual species as well as get good photographs so I I settled down on my bottom, almost in the surf and trained the 500 mm lens on them. I concentrated on getting some good photos because only in that way would be able to name the birds that I was looking at. They were feeding on the small sand fleas and flies that were being disturbed by the rapidly advancing tide. Every wave seemed to disturb a cloud of insects and the birds hardly took any notice of me as they fed avidly. A small plover species that I have seen before, in this very spot as it happens, was amongst them and although small, it was much bigger. This bird was a Semi-palmated Plover, ann attractive species that is very similar to the Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers from the UK and Europe.
Semi-palmated Plover
I took lots of photos of lots of different individuals and it wasn't until I returned home and looked at the pictures that realised that I had photographed another species of a bird that I hadn't even seen originally and quite by accident I had got a shot. This bird was a nice Western Sandpiper Calidris mauri, yet another new species for me.
This is a Western Sandpiper. Note the blackish legs as opposed to yellow on the "Least Sandpiper".
Recent Comments