{"id":38424,"date":"2016-04-16T06:04:07","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T12:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=38424"},"modified":"2025-06-12T07:30:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T12:30:46","slug":"a-fort-de-soto-snowy-plover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/16\/a-fort-de-soto-snowy-plover\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fort De Soto Snowy Plover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GulfGulf Coast Snowy Plover – Nikon D810, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1500, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Snowy Plovers are the smallest plover in North America with two recognized subspecies. On the Gulf Coast I would see the eastern subspecies that are found east of Louisiana, they are also known as the Cuban Snowy Plover.<\/p>\n

Because of their pale coloration and diminutive size Snowy Plover can be easy to overlook or not even see since they blend in so well with their habitat. Last year I saw my first western\u00a0 Snowy Plover at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge but it was so far away on the flats that I could not get a high quality image, just a few documentary images. It is on my bucket list to obtain images of the western subspecies. Both subspecies are on the decline because of habitat destruction and other human disturbances.<\/p>\n

This Gulf Coast Snowy Plover was photographed at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida and the park was the first place I had ever photographed this species. I didn’t see them often but when I did I found them to be wonderful subjects. They might be tiny, delicate looking but Snowy Plovers are long-lived, one was recorded to be 15 years and two months old.<\/p>\n

As many of you know I have been working on moving my images to a new gallery format and as soon as I finish moving my Snowy Plover images I will have completed moving all the shorebird images, and there were a lot of them.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Snowy Plover photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Gulf Coast Snowy Plover was photographed at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida and the park was the first place I had ever photographed this species. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,266],"tags":[4191,4039,173,4246,5094,5841,275,4017,274,3978],"class_list":["post-38424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-snowy-plovers","tag-anarhynchus-nivosus","tag-beach","tag-gulf-coast","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-north-americas-smallest-plover","tag-plover","tag-plovers","tag-sand","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-snowy-plover"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-plover-resting-mia-mcpherson-3156.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-9ZK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9162,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/09\/snowy-plovers-north-americas-smallest-plover\/","url_meta":{"origin":38424,"position":0},"title":"Snowy Plovers – North America’s Smallest Plover","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A while back I did a post on the Least Sandpiper which is the world's smallest sandpiper so I thought I would do a post about North America's smallest plover, the Snowy Plover.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Plover in seashells at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-plover-seashells-mia-mcpherson-6562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-plover-seashells-mia-mcpherson-6562.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the 12th of April I spotted a Snowy Plover way out on the flats and that thrilled me because it was only my second sighting since my move to Utah back in 2009.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Plover wing lift after bathing in a lagoon at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-plover-leap-mia-mcpherson-6129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-plover-leap-mia-mcpherson-6129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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