A few cloudbursts made for cooler walking conditions if muddy underfoot at times. It also got the birds in party mood and produced another first for the trip and one not seen in 11 years i.e Little Blue Heron which even lent itself to a couple of photos at the eastern mangrove.
I did the western mangrove first at approx 0855 hrs to find the Pectoral Sandpiper not in evidence albeit the Solitary Sandpiper showed briefly. Terns were plentiful with c10 Royal, 3 Sandwich, 7 Bridled & c18 Least Tern.
Also 1 Semi P Sandpiper, c9 Semi P Plover, 2 Piping Plover, 1 Reddish Egret and the many Gulls.
As I moved up to the eastern mangrove a Royal Tern flew low overhead from behind and the Friggin Magnificent Bird pursuing it nearly took my toupee off, the rotter 🙄.
It poured down on arrival at the eastern mangrove and dropped 6 Least Sandpiper in and the a/m LBH. 3 Killdeer were highly visible as usual as were c21 Turkeys. 5 of the latter were perched on a nearby fence and I'm almost sure I heard one of them say "Got any smokes mate?" 😎.
The pr Common Yellowthroat showed reasonably well and I managed a couple of shots of the female. At this point I'll mention there are no signs of the hoped for USA passerine migration yet.
17 Savannah Sparrow, 1 Northern Mockingbird bird, 6 Smooth-billed Ani & a couple of GA Grackle were seen as were a pr Green Heron & the usual Snowy Egret.
I hope my camera disk capacity can stand another week of photos weighing it down as I can't transfer a thing to this Tablet; this should teach me to remember connection cables in future 🤔.
After lunch I couldn't resist the western mangrove again and it proved a winner with another wader lifer a Willet in non breeding plumage i.e grey and sharply contrasting white. This cost me about another 1500 Mb of camera disk space 😋.
Also Wilson's Plover doing a smokin version of Midnight Hour (I know I'm losing it now).
