Birding Holiday: Spending Presidents’ Day at Fort DeSoto
Roger Simmons,
Since I was off from work on Presidents Day, I decided to make the daunting trek to Fort DeSoto Park near St. Pete Beach. The daunting part, of course, was traveling to Tampa on Interstate 4, which is never fun.
But I have to say, even getting stuck in I-4 traffic was worth it for the shore birds I was able to photograph as sunset approached on the Gulf of Mexico.
And those birds included a very photogenic Reddish Egret, who was parading around in the lagoon on North Beach as the sun set.
Wilson’s Plover, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Snowy Plover, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Ruddy Turnstone, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Piping Plover, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Semipalmated Sandpiper, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Piping Plover, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Semipalmated Plover, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Reddish Egret, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Reddish Egret, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Reddish Egret, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Reddish Egret, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.Reddish Egret, Fort DeSoto Park, February 2024.
It was typical 2024 Florida winter weather when I visited Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, Jan. 27. It was sunny, then cloudy, then rainy, then cloudy, then sunny, etc. Rinse and repeat, as they say.
This subspecies of the White-Tail deer has been living in the Keys for hundreds of years, with the first known documentation coming from Spanish explorers in the 1550s.
