I am a casual birder both here and up north. I don't usually go out looking for birds, but I keep an eye out for them. This summer I started using two different apps, eBird and Merlin to keep track of sightings. Merlin is great because it identifies birds by their sounds and songs. If you see and hear the bird you can click on "that's my bird" and it takes you to eBird to add it to your list. I am not really working on a monthly or yearly list, but am striving to reach 100 birds for my life list. I am at 88 different birds as of today. There are so many that I have seen over the years, but now I have to see them again to add them. We struck gold yesterday when we visited the state parks at Sebastian Inlet. There is a park on each side of the bridge going over the inlet.
We were amazed at the number of fishermen lining the jetties and on the beach. They must have been soaked with sea water because the waves were breaking on the rocks and going over the walkway, so we opted not to go out to where they were fishing at the end (zoom in on the photo).
The fish didn't stand a chance because waterbirds were also hunting everywhere (so were dolphins). This Woodstork didn't care that I was right next to it. It is such a strange but beautifully ugly bird. 😉
Skimmers are a favorite of mine and are real groupies. I counted over 80 of them together, along with common terns, laughing gulls, and a big herring gull.
Royal Tern and Willets:
We also saw other herons, sandpipers, brown pelicans, and white pelicans, but they had previously been added to my list. What an outstanding place to watch nature!
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