I wish the management of Disney World had a naturalist at each theme park pointing out the cool wild birds around. I didn’t get any year birds at Disney or in the Orlando area (not after yesterday’s Hooded Merganser, anyway), and didn’t see any new ones along the drive back to Sarasota where I said farewell to Mr. B and headed on to the Florida Scrub-Jay Consortium, where my dear friends Bruce and Cathy Brown are doing admirable work trying to get private landowners to work together to manage property for Florida Scrub-Jays. I got there quite late in the day, and though I spotted one in the distance, decided to wait till I see it better tomorrow before I count it. I’m scrambling to catch up on posts for people who want to know what I’ve been seeing, but will write a lot more about Bruce and Cathy’s work, and why they deserve our support, as soon as I can. New bird (oh, well–had to see them eventually) brought my total to 128:

1. Brown-headed Cowbird

I took a short stroll on a beach on Longboat Key near Sarasota this morning. It was quiet bird-wise and some little kid was chasing shorebirds. I told him and his parents that these birds travelled thousands of miles to rest here, but they said there are thousands of miles of beaches they could move to. Oh, well. THAT was depressing! The beach is beautiful.

Sanderling

Ruddy Turnstone (They use that cool wedged beak to turn over stones!)

Royal Terns with one Sandwich Tern in back.

Willets resting up before the little boy chased them away

Doin’ the Sanderling Stretch

Sandwich Tern

The Sanderling kept creeping in and taking tiny bites before the Ruddy Turnstone chased him away. Fish for breakfast!

Black-bellied Plover

 Mr. Borkowski and I headed off to Orlando for my personal “Take Your Fifth Grade Teacher to Disney World Day.” He spotted my year Cattle Egrets along our drive, and in back of our hotel in Kissimmee, there were Hooded Mergansers, so oddly enough, I got a year bird in one of the most developed parts of the state. Joey came to the hotel where we ate dinner together. He took this photo of me and Mr. B.

My new birds brought my total to 127:

1. Hooded Merganser
2. Cattle Egret
3. Sandhill Crane
4. Spotted Sandpiper
5. Sandwich Tern