LBJ Birding @ CWA Lagoon (South Ft. Myers Beach)

South Ft. Myers Beach, FL (85 degrees, blue skies, scattered brief showers)

CWA Lagoon

During the wee hours of the morning we arrived at this lovely spot at the very southern end of Ft. Myers Beach for a birding excursion with our friend France.  We walked along this beach for about two hours observing LBJ's. This stands for little brown jobs, a term birders humorously call  shorebirds.  When we first started getting serious about identifying birds, shorebirds looked very much all the same and were frustrating to identify. We've grown to love these little ones and our skills have improved in noticing their small identifying features.  

Click on the map for directions on where to park and find this area

View My Saved Places in a larger map 

My camera is back at the shop for a repair so most of these pictures were taken by France.  She has a Canon SX50 camera and it has a tremendous zoom.  

Least Tern

Baby Least Tern

Much of this area is roped off to protect it as  a critical wildlife area (CWA) during the summer nesting time. There are lots of Least Terns. They are fun to watch and can buzz you if you get to close to their babies.

We were surprised to see two Rosetta Spoonbills.  The Wildlife Drive has been closed most of the time we have been volunteering at J.N. Ding Darling NWR and have missed seeing these beautiful birds.

Rosetta Spoonbill

We walked slowly and observed the large flocks along the beach.  We added a new bird to our "list". The Black Tern was all by itself and with the help of some folks on an ABA listserve (Birdbrain) we were able to identify it.  He is migrating through this area and was mottling in a big way.  

Black Tern

Semipalmated Plover

Snowy Plover

We saw lots of America Oystercatcher.  It's distinctive orange beak and larger size helps it standout in a crowd.

American Oystercatchers

A parcel of American Oystercatchers

We are new birders and started our "list" this winter while visiting Merritt Island.  Today we reached our first milestone by identifying 100 species.  Pretty cool!  Thanks France for showing us this great birding area. A complete list of the birds we saw during this trip can be found to clicking this ebird link.

Five weeks remain of our volunteering commitment to J.N. Ding Darling NWR.  We have been there since mid April and have enjoyed the experience despite the summer weather very much.  Thanks for stopping by today.