Short-billed Dowitchers are medium sized shorebirds with long bills, long pale legs, tan to gray plumage with streaked heads and a rufous chest in breeding plumage.
This Short-billed Dowitcher slowly made its way through the Sargassum on the wrack line as I laid in the damp sand photographing it and the other shorebirds that were searching the seaweed for food.
Six years ago today I was sand crawling on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico at Fort De Soto's north beach photographing pelicans, godwits and dowitchers plus other birds.
Some days I find myself missing Fort De Soto so much it hurts, the birds I found there and the entire experience of just being there. It is just such an amazing place, how could I not miss it?
Gray skies, freezing temps and the inversions are beginning to get to me so I thought I would share some bird images from warmer days on Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in sunny Florida.
I photographed this Short-billed Dowitcher and the out of focus Sanderling the day after a storm had pushed mounds of Sargassum seaweed onto the wrack line and the birds were busy looking for food within it.
Short-billed Dowitchers feed on insects, crustaceans and aquatic mollusks. Quite often when I lived in Florida I would see them feeding on Coquinas which are small bivalves or tiny Fiddler Crabs.