photo post - bird nerd edition

Husband and I went on a trip to Florida last month with his parents. I had never been to Florida before and couldn't get over the adorable little shorebirds and the way ibis and herons hung out at outdoor cafes hoping for errant french fries the way sparrows do here. thus a post of photos of birds I saw on the trip.

These first several, we saw in Orlando at Sea World - not in captivity, except the scarlet ibis, but just hanging around stealing fish and being cute.
white ibis


scarlet ibis


snowy egret (check the feet!)




wood stork


great egret (right)


I took this one at Busch Gardens in St. Pete.
great blue heron


And the rest are from Fort Myers Beach. I took this one from the pier and couldn't decide: cormorant or anhinga?




plovers and sandpipers (probably!)


wee whatevers (I love these guys!) Every time we went to the beach, which was like four or five times a day, there were crowds of all these guys.


plus gulls


We also saw assorted gulls and terns, black skimmers (!!) - those were more skittish, less photo-able - brown pelicans, of course, and also common gallinule.