July @ Beach 11

The scene above at Beach 11 (looking towards Gull Point on the horizon) appears rather peaceful, but this past Saturday afternoon at Presque Isle State Park it was anything but. What that shot doesn’t show is beachgoers + a full-on festival (food trucks, etc.) up the beach to the left, and 9-10 parked boats w/ lots of (apparently) drunk summer revelers down the beach to the right. Despite the relatively chaotic conditions, the Beach 11 sand/mud bar (the little spit of land in the picture above) was hopping with fun bird activity, including a great sighting of immature/non-breeding Piping Plover + a Ruddy Turnstone:

Piping Plover (foreground) + Ruddy Turnstone (rear)
Short-billed Dowitcher
Piping Plover takes a stance (w/ Ring-billed Gull)
Here’s a Bonaparte’s Gull doing “bird yoga” (+ misc gulls)
Piping Plover III
Adult (breeding plumage) Bonaparte’s Gull (center)
Piping Plover IV
Ruddy Turnstone (rear) + Piping Plover (foreground)
Shorebirds: Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, & Short-billed Dowitcher
Ruddy Turnstone (right) w/ Herring (?) Gull
Another view of misc. shorebirds
Semipalmated Plover (fore right and left) + Semipalmated Sandpiper (fore middle)
Short-billed Dowitchers in lagoon
More Plover & Ruddy Turnstone
Another view of Short-billed Dowitcher
Birds on sandbar
Dowitcher landing
Piping Plover VII
Dowitcher landing II
Bonaparte’s Gull + Ring-billed Gulls

Bonaparte’s Gull (breeding plumage adult) ID: black head, white eye crescents, black bill, and light orange/red legs.

Piping Plover & Ruddy Turnstone IV
Piping Plover VIII w/ gull
Portrait of Ruddy Turnstone
Piping Plover IX
Gull w/ watermelon rind

Note the Piping Plover has three ID bands – plastic orange, plastic black, and metal. Probably one of the relatively recent hatchlings, now approaching maturity, over from nearby Gull Point.