#wilson's plover

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Wilson's Plover

Photo: Shanthanu Bhardwaj

"Several of our plovers are small birds with single dark neck rings. Wilson's Plover is slightly larger than the others, and has a more southerly distribution, living on beaches along the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. Its oversized bill is not only its best field mark, but also a clue to its feeding behavior: some studies have shown that it tends to capture and eat slightly larger creatures than the other plovers on the beach."

- Audubon Field Guide

[spinus-pinus]

Wilson's Plover Anarhynchus wilsonia

5/31/2022 Canaveral National Seashore, Florida

[stickynotebirds]

8. Wilson's Plover

[travelella]

Wilson's Plover - The Navy Base Spot, Ocean Drive, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Charadrius wilsonia

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population decreasing)

Mass: 1.9 oz 

Phylum: Chordata

Wilson's plover is a small bird of the family Charadriidae. It was named after the Scottish-American ornithologist Alexander Wilson by his friend George Ord in 1814.

A specialist hunter of fiddler crabs, the Wilson's Plover is a heavy-billed shorebird of sandy beaches in the southern United States and in coastal South America. It blends in well with its shell-strewn beach habitat, and its plaintive call is often the first clue to its presence.

Wilson's Plovers occupy salt flats and sandy beaches or barrier islands year-round. They nest above the high-tide mark, usually not far from dunes. They also use human-made habitats such as dredge spoil islands.

[bogsuckerecologist]

Today's Survey Babies!

First two are Least Terns and the last is a little Wilson's Plover :)

And now for my obligatory Bird Safety Announcement: If you happen to stumble upon a bird's nest or chicks while out on the beach, please don't approach it or linger in the area! Walk past so that you don't make any sudden turns (which leaves a scent trail that stops at the nest), and keep a wide buffer between yourself and nesting areas. Heavy human disturbance in a nesting area can lead to predators discovering it or nest abandonment by the adults! These birds are being monitored by trained technicians who have the knowledge and equipment necessary to keep encounters with these birds safe :)

[birdblues]

Wilson's Plover

[justvisitingthisplanet]

Oh to be a Sanderling spending my days looking for fiddler crabs and sand fleas

[corvids-corner]

I am so sleepies and covered in a crust of sand but I got to see more bapy birds <3

[whatsthebird]

What's the Bird?

Location: Ireland

Date: May

We ask that discussion under questions be limited to how you came to your conclusion, not what your conclusion was.

Happy Birding!

Keep the game alive! Submit a bird HERE

[p-isforpoetry]

Colette Bryce's "Turbines in January" performed by Jeremy Irons || Climate change poems

In 2015 actors including James Franco, Ruth Wilson, Gabriel Byrne, Maxine Peake, Jeremy Irons, Kelly Macdonald and Michael Sheen read a series of 20 original poems on the theme of climate change, curated by UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

"Turbines in January" by Colette Bryce

A thousand synonyms for wind make up your song. Those busy arms

may juggle any number of rumours going around: your Swish, for one—

they say it whisks the pool of sleep; that blades cut holes in the cloth of dreams;

that shadow-flicker makes of the sunniest day a speed-frame motion picture,

and panes of ice, which crystallize on your frozen wings, are flung when you turn

(one, it was said, had lodged like a glass fin in the roof of a camper van).

*

What’s to be done to keep your head in the clouds, your whirling one-track mind,

for the wingers and losers, raptors, plovers, gulls batted to the ground?

What’s to be done about your foot, electric root beneath an ocean floor

abuzz with armoured creatures charmed by your magnetic aura?

*

Like my brother’s distance-defying snaps, where the London Eye will rest

like a trinket in his palm or the Tower of Pisa bend to the slightest pressure

of an index finger, these turbines could be a row of daffodils

bordering a lawn, signalling the spring, as I reach my hand out

into the perspective, pluck one like a stem, raise it to my lips

like a child’s seaside windmill on a stick, and blow… Its earfolds fill and spin.

Source: Guardian Visuals, 2015

[spinus-pinus]

Wilson's Plover Anarhynchus wilsonia

5/31/2022 Canaveral National Seashore, Florida

[barry-kent-mackay]

Ruddy Turnstones (upper left); Wilson’s Plover (left); Piping Plover (middle); Semipalmated Plover.  Fuertes.  This was done for the Massachusetts series, not long before the artist’s untimely death, and shows his use of opaque gouache watercolours.  While still not as “atmospheric” as I’d like, it fulfills the need and the background shows keen understanding of how these birds act, so in balance one of the better ones.

art by louis agassiz fuertes

text by barry kent mackay

support barry kent mackay on ko-fi

[aquilathefighter]

A few highlights from my trip!! I still need to go through my notes but I got at least 6 new life birds including BLACKPOLL WARBLER!!!! I'm so tired but man gotta love the Gulf coast and the Mississippi flyway.

Image 1: two black-bellied whistling ducks perched on a dead tree.

Image 2: a male orchard oriole perched on a tree

Image 3: A sign that reads: For your safety do not crab near alligators

Image 4: A Wilson's plover standing on the ground

Image 5: a great egret chick in its nest. It's parent is standing behind it

[bogsuckerecologist]

I want what they have...

[birdblues]

Wilson's Plover

[mycandlesblog]

Wilson's Plover, Bulls Island, SC