Florida Trip--Back to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

We went back to St. Marks on Friday afternoon and saw the lighthouse. There was an observation deck next to the lighthouse where we could look out over a salt marsh on one side and mud flats on the other. We saw many shore birds, including, a Ruddy Turnstone, Willets, Short-billed Dowitchers, a Black-bellied Plover, and the usual herons and egrets.

I went down on the beach below the lighthouse and found a colony of fiddler crabs.

Short-billed Dowitchers

Willets

This is the observation tower at Headquarters Pond. It overlooked a mud flat where we saw the usual herons and egrets, Black-necked Stilts, Semi-palmated Sandpipers and Plovers, also a mother wild pig and her five young.

This is a Snowy Egret--if you look carefully, you can see its yellow foot.

Black-necked Stilts

These American White Pelicans (about 16 of them) were at Picnic Pond located near Headquarters Pond.