Birds! My week has been full of them. From cute birds with pink bills in my backyard and “flightless chicks” on Lido Key to shop visits from one of my favorite birding families and connecting with birding new shop visitors, birds are on my mind this week.
The cute birds with pink beaks - Also called Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (thanks Jenna Virgo with additional support from the Merlin app) these bright beaked cuties look like ducks but have social habits more similar to geese and swans. If you love learning about birds and don’t have the free Merlin app yet it is 100% worth downloading. Through the app you can learn to identify all the awesome winged friends that we have in Sarasota (and around the world).
Lido Key’s “flightless chicks” - I’ve been staying up (waaay too) late cuddling with my cat while working on inventory planning for the holidays (yes, it starts now!). Anyways, late nights mean later mornings which means that the sun is in the perfect spot for moving my morning walk to the beach. Throughout this week I’ve walked the length of Lido which brings me past multiple bird nesting areas and signs asking beachgoers to “watch for flightless chicks.” There’s something about the phrase “flightless chicks” that is just soooooo cuuuuute to me. And it’s also just so cool how many different species choose our gorgeous crystal quartz beaches as the perfect place to start a family (I can totally relate!). If you’re interested in learning more this Beach Docent Guide from Florida Audubon has so much fantastic info about our Shore Birds https://fl.audubon.org/sites/default/files/audubon_beachdocentmanual_april2016.pdf
Stay cool and keep birding!
xo,
amanda