Quiet Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto

Dowitchers trying to sleep.

Great blue heron goes flying by.

Looks like a black tern in non-breeding colors. This was the only one I saw in flock of laughing gulls.

Herring gull.

Flock of skimmers and sandwich terns. I think the black tern was in this crowd.  Someone came walking by and scared them.

Skimmer flying by.

A recent Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto was pretty quiet. Even though the peak tourist season is over there were still a lot of people hanging around the north beach. I didn't see anything different or unusual there on this trip. I did see a bald eagle fly by from very far away. It was too far to even try and crop but it was the first time I had seen one fly over the beach. Now that the weather is absolutely perfect I'll be headed there a lot more.

Black terns in the Tampa bay area.

Last week I saw my first black tern. I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were hundreds on the Gandy beach as well as some on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. I wasn't able to get there until a few days later. There were about 20 hanging around with other gulls and terns. I missed the big migration of hundreds but it was neat to see a few of them. Only a few were still all black in breeding colors (1st picture). The rest were now in non-breeding colors with a lot of white on the head and chest. Apparently they migrate through area. I've never seen them on the gulf beaches before. It's weird that they would pick an intown area to stop and rest.