Western Willet, Terns, Sanderlings, Brown Pelicans at the beach

Western Willet

Anna Maria Island beach is quiet, the waves calm (9/8/19). The drive was 8 minutes from Wildewood this traffic-less, early morning.

Here are a few birds I saw.

This Western Willet preened.

Then settled onto the sand for a nap.

While it slept, Sanderlings ran to the water's edge and back, so fast that I was surprised to see I caught a moment of that flash of energy.

Oops, there Sanderling goes!

I looked up and caught these two Brown Pelicans in the early morning light.

Then, a Sandwich Tern (notice the "mustard" or yellow color on its beak?) and a Royal Tern. If you are having a thought that I might be good at identifying these terns, maybe let that go. I asked knowledgeable people in a birding group. They are the ones who know this species from that species with pretty good accuracy.

Here is another photograph of the Royal Tern.

Most of us just stood and watched the waves roll in and out.

Sandwich Tern (compared with a Forester's Tern)

We had visitors recently. One wonderful aspect of these visits is a chance to head to the beach. We opt for Holmes Beach and Anna Maria. I brought my camera on a windy, wild-wave day. I'm glad I did. Because I got my first photograph of a Sandwich Tern (January 2019).

Even in this head-on photo, the yellow on its bill stands out.

My birding pals say that an easy way to identify the Sandwich Tern is that it looks like it dipped its bill in mustard. That makes it easy to remember. Because there are many other terns at the beach. At first, I thought it was a Forester's Tern. This is a Forester's Tern (juvenile):

Helpful identifying features for the Forester's Tern: no mustard, smile smile, and bandit-mask eye markings).