A Mantanzas Survey, December 2009:

Peggy Cook, Tina VanGhent, Monique Borboen and I had a chilly, dampish morning out at Matanzas Inlet. The high tide precluded walking from the west walkover the way we usually do, and all the sandbars were covered. As a result, we missed some species we usually get back there like Dunlins and Dowitchers.

However, we went down along the bridge to the front beach which was carpeted in birds! We had one large flock of well over a 1000 birds. There were 18 species in all, not counting land birds like the prolific yellow-rumped warblers. Laughing gulls numbered in the hundreds as did black skimmers. There were also many terns, mostly royals, and large numbers of juvenile and adult herring, lesser black-backed, and great black-backed gulls. We worked this group for a long time. If there were Franklin's or any unusual species of gulls we couldn't pull them out. We really could have used Matt Hafner or Andrew Thornton today. Juvie gulls are for the "heavy-lifters" like those guys!

Semipalmated, Wilsons, black-bellied, and four PIPING PLOVERS were feeding and hunkering down in the wrack line at the high tide line. While we watched, a white truck drove right through the middle of the area causing the plovers to scatter. We later counted two more piping plovers but decided they could have been the ones chased down the beach by the truck.

There were lots of the usual suspects: turnstones, sanderlings, willets, pelicans, cormorants, etc. Also, a couple of nice people stopped to talk and look through the scope. The lady said how much they enjoy walking and shelling at Matanzas so we encouraged her to write a letter expressing those feelings to the powers that be. Her response was that she  thought that the beach driving thing was all settled. For the sake of the piping plovers, I sure hope she's right.

Teddy Shuler