{"id":6599,"date":"2012-11-18T05:38:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T12:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=6599"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:00:57","slug":"the-ant-slaying-snowy-plover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/18\/the-ant-slaying-snowy-plover\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ant Slaying Snowy Plover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SnowySnowy Plover with ant – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, prey provided by the bird<\/span><\/p>\n

While photographing this Snowy Plover in June of 2008 I was able to observe the tiny shorebird snatch an ant from the sugar sand of the north beach of Fort De Soto.<\/p>\n

I watched as the plover stuffed the ant into the sand then waited a few seconds and then the bird \u00a0removed the ant from the sand and repeated the behavior several times before scarfing the ant down.<\/p>\n

To this day I am still not sure why the Snowy Plover<\/span><\/a> did what it did but I do know that while watching it through my lens I was fascinated.<\/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":"

While photographing this Snowy Plover in June of 2008 I was able to observe the tiny shorebird snatch an ant from the sugar sand of the north beach of Fort De Soto. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,704,266],"tags":[4191,4515,4039,4226,14752,1130,173,5841,275,4106,4017,274,3978,2315],"class_list":["post-6599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-snowy-plovers","tag-anarhynchus-nivosus","tag-ant","tag-beach","tag-behavior","tag-coastal-island","tag-food","tag-gulf-coast","tag-plover","tag-plovers","tag-prey","tag-sand","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-snowy-plover","tag-summer-3"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t