Eva and Sara both had crane duties to take care of in the morning, so I got to sleep in. In the afternoon, we headed to Fort Island Gulf Beach, where one can reliably seen black skimmers, royal terns, and various other shorebirds.
It was very windy, so most of the birds were gathered together on the rocks at the end of the beach. There were ruddy turnstones, a black-bellied plover, sanderlings, a dunlin, royal terns, black skimmers, laughing, and herring gulls. Boat-tailed grackles can also be reliably seen here. Off-shore a few red-breasted merganser were floating on the white-caps, not bothered at all by the winds. This is also a good place to see loons, pelicans, and swallow-tailed kites, but I didn't see any on this day.
royal tern
laughing gulls, royal terns, ring-billed gull
black skimmer, sanderlings, ruddy turnstones
banded royal tern
boat-tailed grackle
We then made a quick stop at the boat ramp to deliver a pair of hip-waders to Sara and Matt (crane intern), and said hi to my former boss Richard Urbanek of the USFWS, who is an excellent crane biologist. All the crane happenings made me miss working with the cranes a lot. Here is a photo taken at the crane pensite this year at Chassahowitzka.
2009 hatched whooping crane
Unfortunately, number 3-09 went missing while I was visiting, and his body was discovered a few days later out in the sawgrass. He had roosted outside the pen with a few adults (a very safe thing to do if with adults), but unfortunately got nabbed by a bobcat. A few days later, an adult (1-05) also got attacked and killed by a bobcat near the pensite. It is a rough life but bobcats are a real threat that wild cranes have to deal with everyday.
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