Wynken, Blynken, and Nod...

Birding Longboat Key, Florida

...continued from the Snowy Egret post.
This little Willet completely captured my heart. He was sleeping hard in the early afternoon sun. All the other Willets in his flock were winking and blinking, looking around, repositioning, preening, etc., but this little guy kept on sleeping. The sun was warm, which was welcome, because a mean wind had been whipping across the sand for days. I had to buy a windbreaker to keep from freezing, so the intense heat coming from the sun that afternoon must have felt like a slice of heaven to the birds--especially this one! I inched my way toward the flock and sank into the sand. The wind-breaker fabric was slick and the sand slid right off it (plus bonus, it was black and was intensifying the heat, so I felt a little bit like winking, blinking and nodding too...). I focused my lens on the sleeping bird and clicked. He immediately opened both eyes and looked at me. I guess he decided I was just another one of those birder types and meant him no harm, because he just as quickly closed his eyes and went back to sleep--doing a perfect Tree posture, naturally.

I love those Florida birds...

These photos were from 3-16-2010