Posted by Raul U on July 06, 2003 at 11:37:42:
Hello everyone,
Had a little summer vacation over at the panhandle this past week (June 28-July 5). Needless to say, I got out to bird whenever I had the opportunity to. The Destin Bridge was the target area. The east and west side both have jetties and are fairly productive; particularly the west. Tropical storm Bill brought in some pretty cool stuff to shore, along with some awesome waves...for the Florida Gulf Coast. Here are some of the birds I saw, the more interesting ones:
Gray kingbird (these were around town, in numbers)
Least tern (happy to say there were many)
Royal tern
Sandwich tern
Common tern
Black tern
Black skimmer
Laughing gull
Herring gull
Ruddy turnstone
Snowy plover
Black-bellied plover
Willet
Northern gannet (didn't expect to see these in summer)
Brown pelican
Osprey
Great blue heron
Yellow-crowned night heron
and
One dead common loon washed ashore (I assumed recently deceased since the body was intact)
Don't worry, I didn't count this last one. I just it was interesting enough to mention.
Cheers,
Raul "Rock Jetty" Urgelles