{"id":4381,"date":"2015-05-12T19:58:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T23:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4381"},"modified":"2015-05-12T19:58:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T23:58:48","slug":"florida-2015-bunche-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=4381","title":{"rendered":"Florida 2015 – Bunche Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.*<\/p>\n

\"~This<\/a>
~This was definitely THE bird for me at Bunche Beach. MARBLED GODWIT<\/strong> at Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love shorebirds. I really love shorebirds, but boy can they be difficult to identify. Especially when you are at a beach in another state a thousand miles away and you really haven’t done your homework.<\/p>\n

I got several recommendations to go to Bunche Beach while I was in Florida, and I ended up going there early in the morning on two different days. On the first day, the number of shorebird species I had was on the low side; two photographers were there ahead of\u00a0me and were literally chasing the birds around.\u00a0I did better on the second day when I basically had the beach to myself. What a great joy to have all these beautiful shorebirds in perfect, gorgeous light. But then, of course, you have to identify them. I struggled as I sorted through the birds, but I think I eventually figured them all out. Here is my list of shorebirds I had for the two days; if you see any of the photos here misidentified, please comment to help me get it right – thanks! Life birds are in all caps.<\/p>\n

American Oystercatcher
\nBlack-bellied Plover
\nSemipalmated Plover
\nWillet
\nMARBLED GODWIT<\/strong>
\nRuddy Turnstone
\nRED KNOT<\/strong>
\nSanderling
\nDunlin
\nLeast Sandpiper
\nShort-billed Dowitcher<\/p>\n

\"~Always<\/a>
~Always cute, a Semipalmated Plover cruises the shoreline at Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~I<\/a>
~I saw many Willets in the week that we were down in Florida; I caught this one in flight at Bunch Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~I<\/a>
~I love this American Oystercatcher, it has such striking colors! I have not altered the saturation of this photo at all – it has been cropped, the highlights reduced a bit, and then sharpened at the eye and bill. Bunch Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~This<\/a>
~This was one of my tougher ID’s – I have it as a Short-billed Dowitcher. The size seemed right for this and I looked at other reports from Bunche Beach earlier in the week and SBDOs were on several lists. At Bunche Beach on 5\/7\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~A<\/a>
~A MARBLED GODWIT<\/strong> takes a short flight. Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/25.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~There<\/a>
~There were plenty of Dunlin present on both days, Bunche Beach 5\/7\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~I<\/a>
~I think I am getting a handle on this bird (but maybe I’m wrong!). Sanderling at Bunche Beach, 5\/7\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~Black-bellied<\/a>
~Black-bellied Plover and reflection. Bunche Beach, 5\/7\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~I<\/a>
~I have this bird as a RED KNOT, but may it’s not (ha ha). To me there’s nothing special about this photo but I wanted to include it to see if anyone would confirm it as a Red Knot. Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bunche Beach is a great location and I had more good birds than just the shorebirds. I enjoyed watching a large group of Black Skimmers flying in unison over the water in the distance; I estimated at least 65 birds were there. When they came to rest\u00a0on a distant sandbar, I noticed that there were approximately a dozen ROYAL TERNS<\/strong> there as well. I also did well with wading birds, including: Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron, REDDISH EGRET,<\/strong> Yellow-crowned Night Heron, White Ibis, and five ROSEATE SPOONBILLS<\/strong> did a flyby on that second morning. Beautiful birds!<\/p>\n

\"~This<\/a>
~This one’s for Tricia – Little Blue Heron just after sunrise. Bunche Beach 5\/7\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~A<\/a>
~A Tricolored Heron hunts along the shoreline. Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/15.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"~(Hopefully)<\/a>
~(Hopefully) Short-billed Dowitchers at Bunche Beach, 5\/8\/15. I think the bird behind the central SBDO and to the left is the bird I have identified as a RED KNOT in an above photo.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*Click on photos to enlarge.* I love shorebirds. I really love shorebirds, but boy can they be difficult to identify. Especially when you are at a beach in another state a thousand miles away and you really haven’t done your homework. I got several recommendations to go to Bunche Beach while I was in Florida, … Continue reading “Florida 2015 – Bunche Beach”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-18F","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4399,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4381\/revisions\/4399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}