Sat., the 16th, was just a half day field trip. We left at 0600 for the Briggs
Nature Center just south of Naples. We got there about 0700 and had to wait
for 20 minutes for the birds to start showing up. The object bird was the
SHINY COWBIRD, a life bird for most of the people, which did show up. Saw male
and female, about 6-8 total. Also saw 8 other species, but no new ones.

Next we drove to Tigertail Beach in Marco Is. We waded out to the sand bar.
Max. of 1/2" water going out and 6-8" coming back. Great place for shorebirds,
especially plovers. We saw five species of plovers and were able to get good
comparisons. A list of them and other new birds for the trip follow, we had a
total of 54 birds for the day:
American White Pelican
Reddish Egret
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Black-bellied Plover
Snowy Plover
WILSON'S PLOVER - a life bird for me and many others
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
American Oystercatcher
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Ring-billed Gulls - they call them Chicago gulls because that is where all
come from.
Herring Gull
Royal Tern
SANDWICH TERN - a life bird
Eastern Towhee - heard

All in all another very good day. There were programs in the afternoon which I
skipped to go see a grand-daughter play in a soccer tournament.

More to follow for Sun. and Mon.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA (temporarily in Ft. Meyers, FL)
hughbirder at aol.com