Snowy Plover - Bunche Beach

Snowy Plover -
Bunche Beach, Lee County, Florida
June 26th

   After work I headed over to Bunche Beach with the expectation of arriving on a rising tide. My last couple of visits were during a high tide which is not as productive for birding as a rising tide would have been.  So I was rewarded with much better birding. Including a surprise of a juvenile Snowy Plover.  Unfortunately my camera is awol so I could not get a photo of the bird.  In the past couple of years of birding this beach, this was my first sighting of a snowy here.  They tend to stay over at the beach at Little Estero Lagoon on nearby Ft Myers Beach.
   Also came across three Marbled Godwits, which I had not seen around for a couple of months. I believe that the migration south from the Great North has started for the shore birds. An another example were the sixty-five dowitchers present.  Several still in breeding plumage.  A few had remained behind when they left during the spring migration, but these larger numbers mean that they are returning to Florida. I suspect some were long-billed Dowitchers based on their squeaky calls, but I am not completely sure. Most were probably Short-Billed Dowitchers. Another example of returning shorebirds were a pair of American Avocets, still in breeding plumage,  photographed a week again at Bunche Beach by Charley Ewell. The peeps should be returning soon as well.

My List (26) - Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Magnificent Frigatebird, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Osprey, Black-bellied Plover, Snowy Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Short-billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Mourning Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Fish Crow, Prairie Warbler, Northern Cardinal