I had been one week too early for the northerly shorebird migration on my April trip so I decided to go back in May. I was one week too late. We saw only about 300 shorebirds in 5 days of crossing from East to West Coast of Florida and checking our favorite spots. The locals were complaining as well that there were less birds this year. No explanation yet.
This was purely a digiscoping trip with the new Kowa lens/scope system and I picked up some new bits for it while I was there.
Being there late in the season meant the few birds we saw were showing good breeding colors, including Sanderlings, Red Knots and Short-billed Dowitchers. But the highlight were several Stilt Sandpipers showing breeding color, although we couldn't get very close to them and they disappeared after 20 minutes and we never saw them again.
We visited Fort Desoto ( West Coast ), Orlando area, Titusville area ( Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge ) and St. Augustine.
Neil
Various cameras (Nikon P300,P6000,P7000, S9100,8400/Canon SD400IS/Sony Nex5/Panasonic G1 ) and Kowa lens/scope Prominar and various eyepieces
Florida,USA
May 2011
sb dowitcher breed P7000 DSCN9941.jpg by
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url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/7892550@N03/5764613344/]
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ruddy turnstone breed P7000 kw25x DSCN9958.jpg by
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sanderling fem turnstones breed P7000 kw25x DSCN9646.jpg by
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least sandpipers P7000 kw25x DSCN9605.jpg by
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semi-palmated sandpiper breed G1 kwv25x_1980212.jpg by
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semi palmated plover breed P7000 kw25x DSCN9350.jpg by
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dunlin breed P7000 kwva DSCN9166.jpg by
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sanderling fem breed P7000 kw25x DSCN9632.jpg by
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stilt sandpipers breed G1 kw25x c_1990068.jpg by
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wr sandpiper P7000 kw25x c DSCN9740.jpg by
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Last edited by fneil at 29/05/2011 11:29 ]
