Beach Birds

While camping in Oak Hill we took a day to enjoy the Canaveral National Seashore, a national park just south of the bustling New Smyrna Beach. By paying a lowly $5 entry fee, you can access natural, pristine beaches that are surprisingly empty of human traffic. Consisting of a barrier island flanked on one side by the open Atlantic Ocean and the other by Mosquito Lagoon, this park has one of the largest remaining undeveloped shorelines along the eastern coast of Florida. There are 5 seperate beach access points to Apollo Beach along with a visitor centre, boat launches and fishing docks and a couple of short trails. 

The (somewhat) cold water and rough conditions ruled out any swimming but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. An abundance of interesting seashells on the beach also makes for some good shelling.

After settling into a nice spot on the beach, we soon became aware of the fast-paced shorebird activity all around us. 

Sanderlings and ruddy turnstones scurried back and forth at lazer-like speeds, chasing the waves and sometimes, if one was seen with a particularly interesting morsel of food, each other. 

The turnstones even approached us very closely, coming within arm's reach before scrambling on. We figured they had been habituated to humuan presence as a result of feeding and, true enough, later we observed a large group of them swarming a fishermen as he discarded fish and shrimp scraps.

The speed at which the sanderlings chased the waves back and forth on their little legs was especially incomprehensible.

Elegant willets also graced the shoreline and with their larger size, they seemed less concerned about escaping the power of the surf with each incoming wave. While walking along the beach we came upon a small group of them feeding in the waves and moving about in near synchronization.

Further out, brown pelicans casually surfed the tumbling waves and northern gannets dove into the ocean from high above.

After leaving the beach we stopped at Turtle Mound, an ancient shell midden created by the Timucuan natives which is crested by a short boardwalk  At the beginning of the boardwalk, on the shore of Mosquito Lagoon, we were excited to spot two pairs of mating horeshoe crabs! We were in awe at seeing them for the first time but for fear of disturbing them, we quickly moved on.

The boardwalk passes through some dense and interesting vegetation until ascending up through the low canopy to the top of the mound. The flatforms at the top offer stunning views of the barrier island.