{"id":6765,"date":"2012-12-11T05:16:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T12:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2016-12-07T12:12:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T19:12:34","slug":"wilsons-plover-in-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/11\/wilsons-plover-in-habitat\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson’s Plover in habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wilson's<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson’s Plover in dried Sea Purslane – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the shorebirds that I saw often along the coast of Florida year round was the Wilson’s Plover. Wilson’s Plover are the largest of the belted plovers and are found primarily along the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean up to about the Chesapeake Bay, they can also be found on the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Their long, thick black bill is distinctive and a great key for identification.<\/p>\n

Just watching the two chicks running around in the dunes like small windup toys made me realize what a hard job it is for the adult plover to protect their young. I very much enjoyed the setting I photographed this plover in and loved the loose feather near the bird’s rump.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Wilson’s Plover and its mate were being run ragged chasing after the two chicks they had fledged, this adult stopped in front of me where I had laid down in the sugary white sand and rested a few moments in the dried Sea Purslane stalks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12290,"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":[27,25,704,269],"tags":[4058,4039,4021,4083,4077,683,519,4035,3980,3982,274,2007,102,4032,361],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-wilsons-plovers","tag-anarhynchus-wilsonia","tag-beach","tag-bird-photography","tag-birding","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-habitat-2","tag-nature","tag-nature-photography","tag-pinellas-county","tag-sea-purslane","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-white-sand","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-photography","tag-wilsons-plover"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/wilsons-plover-feather-mia-mcpherson-6917.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1L7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3074,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/09\/09\/friday-photos-wilsons-plover\/","url_meta":{"origin":6765,"position":0},"title":"Friday 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