A Tern for the Better

 

Osprey

 To be sure, one of the best parts of living in Florida is the frequent opportunity to watch birds.  They have the habit of being everywhere and nowhere at once, which seems to be true of birds wherever we’ve lived.  What’s funny about birds here on the Gulf Coast is that they seem to show up in the craziest places or in startling numbers.

Ibis ( Both photos: Google Images)

White Ibis are like cats here in Bradenton; there’s always one walking across your lawn.  Quite often they are in groups of five or more and they will move about like a herd of cattle, grazing on whatever bug or food matter is unfortunate enough to be in their path.  They move undaunted along the grassy verges of car parks and sidewalks, their long, curved beaks ready to pluck the next tasty tidbit in view.  We had one graceful visitor we named Iris, Iris the Ibis, who spent the better part of a morning giving the lawn a thorough going over.  Today on the way home from the beach, we saw six ibis perched on the power lines looking like quarter notes on a big piece of staff paper.  Brilliant and oddly comical.

Wood Stork

 Our most neck-jerking bird sighting to date was several months ago.  Again, we were on Anna Maria Island going to the Bay Fest festival and there on a patch of lawn just a couple of feet from the road was a wood stork looking all the world like a child’s drawing.  We were so shocked I turned the car around immediately and Jamie snapped a couple of photos.  What is fabulous about long-legged birds is how they walk, like women in extremely high heels that are walking cautiously through cow patties.  Each step is strategic and deliberate.  The stork posed for several shots before sending us on to the festival.



Roseate Spoonbill

 Our most coveted unexpected sight was a roadside pond with five roseate spoonbills and an assortment of ducks.  Again, the car was whipped into a u-turn.  It’s hard to explain the excitement and sheer joy of seeing a pink bird, let along five pink birds.  Then there’s the whole novelty of their bills and watching them feed.  Another birdwatcher was happily snapping away photos with a massive camera that stirred serious lens envy in the Pearsons.  He told us that about 15 minutes prior to our arrival, there had been over 30 spoonbills in the pond but a pair of squabbling egrets had moved most of the flock along.  He said the flock is at the pond every morning and evening.  We went back a few days later but the scene was empty save for a policeman talking to someone who was pulled over right in front of the pond.  I hope they were talking about birds and not arguing over warnings for being on the side of the road looking for spoonbills.

  On the verge of creepy is the recent arrival of big flocks of big birds.  Near  our house, crows have been appearing in large groups.  We’ve all seen those big flocks of grackles and starlings that move as one unit in amazing feats of agility but lately it’s been crows in our neighborhood.It’s usually mid-morning and they come cawing from the direction of the river, flying in all directions at once, their shadows dancing a macabre waltz on the porch awning and driveway.  It’s like a clip left on the cutting room floor when Hitchcock was filming “The Birds.”  (Pictured Above:  Willet)

The vultures have also been massing.  We have turkey vultures and black vultures here in Florida.  While it’s common to see them tidying up carcasses along the road (I refer to them as “the road crew”) it’s a bit spooky to see them in large numbers riding the thermals, avian tornados hundreds of feet tall above the pastures and orange groves.  For some reason it’s even more foreboding to see them kettling at the coastline and yet it’s incredibly beautiful to watch.  My favorite vulture visitation happened on a November day back in Maine six or seven years ago.  We were starting a new tradition of an early Thanksgiving as Dave was usually away deer hunting the week of Thanksgiving and would miss the turkey and trimmings.  Friends and family were just tucking in around the table that took up the entire living room when what to our wondering eyes did appear but a turkey vulture perched quite contentedly on the grape arbor looking towards the house! He stayed for the entire meal.  My brother wisely recommended we use the buddy system if anyone left the house.  One misplaced step and you would be ripe for the picking…hahaha. (Turkey Vulture & Black Vulture:  Google Images)

(Pictured above:  Brown Pelicans, Great Blue Heron, Gull, Sanderlings.   Pictured above:  Royal Terns)
Depending on the day and the fishing, you can expect to share the beach with brown and white pelicans, great white egrets, gulls, herons, osprey, oyster catchers, black skimmers, willet, sandpipers, sanderlings, crows, grackles, pigeons, parrots and my happy favorites, the terns. While well acquainted with the common terns and Arctic terns back home, I was instantly captivated by the Royal Terns with their bright orange beaks and punk rock head gear.  Most often you will find them in groups, sometimes mixed in with the waiting gulls.

(Pictures:  Black Skimmer, Brown Pelicans, Great Egret, Brown Pelican) 

Let me first say that the gulls along the beaches of Anna Maria Island are a brutish lot.  They may cut a dashing figure for a picture postcard but they are grifters of the most notorious sort.  We’ve watched them mob beachgoers for their sandwiches and chips.  Upon stepping out from under a sun canopy with a cheese doodle in his hand, a four-year old was instantly set upon by a pack of gulls and left crying, pecked and doodle-less within seconds.  We had gulls trying to land on a hot hibachi to snag shrimp we were grilling. Most astoundingly though they have the cheek to steal fish from the mouths of the terns and pelicans.  We watched in disbelief as a gull flew alongside a pelican, hovered as the pelican dove into the water, and then landed centimeters from the pelican’s mouth within seconds of it breaking the surface in the hopes of nabbing any fish sticking out of the pelican’s beak or any spilling out as the pelican tossed its head back to swallow.  The practiced precision is amazing.  Oooh, the buggers!

(Pictured below:  Royal Terns and Cheeky Gull)

By comparison, the Royal Terns are positively polite.  Gregarious but not ingratiating, they seem to suffer humans tolerably well.  If you approach a flock at a gentle pace, they will move en masse to grant you passage, sometimes letting you walk right through them.  They don’t beg; they don’t steal; they simply fish, chat and look fabulous.  At least in my mind that’s what they do.

(Pictured below:  Royal Terns & Jamie)

For me, it’s always a great day at the beach when I’ve spent it in the company of the Royal terns and Mr. Pearson.  Several months ago we were lucky enough to share a stretch of sand with a massive flock of the Royals.  As with big piles of leaves or giant puddles, human beings can’t seem to resist the urge to run through flocks of birds.  Over and over again, Jamie and I stood still with cameras going while children and adults alike flung themselves along the sand sending the terns to flight in a flurry of feathers.  Unlike being mobbed by the gulls, this was magical; a living snowstorm of white and wing that rose and subsided on the whims of passersby.  It was an afternoon we will never forget.

Bonus video:  See if you can spot the endangered  le petit maillot de bain bleu in this footage.  Always an unexpected sight!

Bradenton Beach on Dwellable