This morning I drove up to St. Petersburg to look for the Curlew Sandpiper that has been seen for the last two days.  The location is the flooded fields on the right side of the Halkey-Roberts building on 28^th Street, about one mile north of Gandy Blvd.  I arrived there about 9 am; there were already about a dozen birders there.  No one had seen the Curlew or the Stilt or Pectoral Sandpipers that had been there the day before.  I stayed until about 11 am.  The only birds seen were about a dozen Least and Western Sandipipers, a few Black-necked Stilts, and Lesser Yellowlegs.  A Bald Eagle and Osprey were seen flying over.  There were also about a dozen or more Laughing Gulls further away from the shallow pond by the road.  Apparently the shallow pond is drying up.  One of the persons that had been there yesterday pointed out a large area where there was water yesterday, but dry today.

Due to the temperature, very hot and sunny, I decided to go home, rather than stop elsewhere to do more birding.  I stopped at the rest area on the north side of the Skyway Bridge and noted several  Yellow-crowned Night Herons (1 adult , 3 juveniles), several Snowy Egrets, one Great Blue Heron,  one Spotted Sandpiper, and two Least Sandpipers.  I took some photos and then continued home, arriving there about 1:00.

Two friends and I met in North Port at 6am this morning.  We drove up to Fort DeSoto, arriving there a little after 7am.  The object of the trip was to photograph shore birds in various positions. 

We started at the East Beach turn-around.  Unfortunately, the tide was near its maximum.  We did fine a few shorebirds, including Short-billed Dowitchers, Sandpipers (Least and Western), a few Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, and Willets.  There was also a small group of Laughing Gulls on the shore and a few wading birds (Snowy Egret and Wood Storks).  After taking a few pictures, we drove over to the North Beach.  On the way, we passed two Spoonbills wading in a shallow ditch.

Again, due to the high tide, there were very few shorebirds, or even wading birds for that matter.  We walked out to the far point where there were a few Least and Western Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Willets, Turnstones, and Laughing Gulls.  We did see one Black-bellied Plover, and a few Terns (Forster’s and Royal).  Some Black Skimmers were seen in the distance.  Wading birds seen included Herons (Great Blue, Little Blue, and Tricolored), Egrets (Great and Snowy), and White Ibis.  No Reddish Egrets were seen.  After getting a few more pictures, we decided to call it quits (9:30am).