Shorebirds and Terns at Sebastian Inlet

At Sebastian Inlet, FWC's birding trail guide names ruddy turnstones, semipalmated plovers, black skimmers, sandwich terns and herring gulls on the ocean side, while the Sebastian Inlet District has photographed sanderlings, willets and royal terns there.

The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail page for Sebastian Inlet State Park, run by FWC, tells birders to check the ocean side for those species and for the occasional rare brown noddy. It points to a small cove on the northwest side of the inlet bridge for reddish egret and short-billed dowitchers, and to a spit of land good for shorebirds reached through the campground past the Sebastian Fishing Museum entrance.

The district keeps its own record. Its wildlife sanctuary page says birders have listed more than 190 bird species at Sebastian Inlet, according to the state park, and shows photographs taken at the inlet by district staff, among them the black skimmer, ruddy turnstone, sanderling, willet, ring-billed gull and royal tern in winter plumage.

Most of the sandpipers at Sebastian Inlet are migrants that are easiest to see from fall through spring, while the terns shift with the seasons, with sandwich terns a summer bird and royal terns in pale winter plumage from late summer.

Sanderlings are the clearest case. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says these long-distance migrants breed only on High Arctic tundra but are easy to find on sandy beaches from fall through spring, running back and forth with the waves to probe the wet sand, the behavior seen along the 3 miles of Sebastian Inlet State Park beach.

Turnstones linger longest. Cornell's ruddy turnstone account says almost any time of year will do but the birds are more numerous in spring and fall, feeding at the water's edge where high tide leaves shells, rocks and seaweed, and moving onto rocky outcrops at higher tides, a fit for the jetty rocks at Sebastian Inlet.

Willets and dowitchers are winter birds on this coast. Cornell says willets are easy to spot in winter feeding along the water's edge, showing a bold black and white wing stripe in flight, and that short-billed dowitchers are easy to find in migration and winter, feeding on mudflats on falling and rising tides, like the cove the trail guide names by the Sebastian Inlet bridge.

Terns change their look by season. Cornell's royal tern account says the bird loses most of its black crest in late summer and fall and shows a white forehead, the winter plumage in the district's Sebastian Inlet photographs, while its sandwich tern account says to look for that species in summer on sandy Atlantic beaches, often mixed with other terns and gulls.

The common Sebastian Inlet species separate easily by bill and leg color: turnstones have orange legs, sanderlings black legs and bill, willets a black and white wing stripe, royal terns an orange bill and sandwich terns a yellow-tipped black bill.

Cornell's turnstone account likens the ruddy turnstone to a calico cat, with orange legs and a patterned black and white head and chest, and says it flips beach debris with a stout, slightly upturned bill to uncover insects and small crustaceans, the habit to look for along the wrack at Sebastian Inlet. Its sanderling account describes pale nonbreeding plumage, black legs and bill, and an obsessive wave-chasing habit, with sanderlings often defending feeding territories at the water's edge.

The willet is the plain large one. Cornell says it is one of the largest common shorebirds, chunky and subdued in color, and best confirmed by the black and white wing markings in flight and the pill-will-willet call, a sound that carries across the Sebastian Inlet State Park beach.

The two crested terns are a matched pair. Cornell's royal tern account gives it a tangerine-colored bill and ragged black crest and ranks it among the largest terns on North American beaches, outsized only by the Caspian tern. Its sandwich tern account calls that species smaller and slimmer, with a black bill tipped in yellow, and says the two often nest side by side in colonies on southeastern barrier islands like the one Sebastian Inlet cuts through.

Around Sebastian Inlet, shorebirds gather on the ocean beach, on the spit reached through the campground, in the cove northwest of the bridge and on the spoil islands of the Indian River Lagoon.

The park covers both sides of the inlet and both sides of the barrier island. The trail page lists 971 acres with beach and Indian River Lagoon frontage, coastal strand, maritime hammock and mangroves, and says to pick up a bird list and map at the entrance station on the northwest side of the inlet bridge. Florida State Parks offers the same Sebastian Inlet Bird Checklist at the ranger station.

The lagoon side matters too. The Florida DEP page for the Indian River-Malabar to Vero Beach Aquatic Preserve, which runs past Sebastian, lists wading birds, seabirds and shorebirds among its nesting and migrating birds, and says spoil islands support the majority of bird rookeries in the Indian River Lagoon aquatic preserve system.

The district watches the beaches as well. The Sebastian Inlet District FAQ lists area beaches important to sea turtle nesting and shorebirds among the habitats around the inlet that it monitors with marine scientists.

FWC lists black skimmers and least terns as state-threatened beach birds, and posted signs around nesting areas near Sebastian Inlet are the main defense against the disturbance FWC calls a leading threat.

The FWC wildlife conservation guide for birds says least terns and black skimmers, both state-threatened, nest on coastlines, spoil islands and gravel rooftops, and forage on mudflats, wrack lines, lagoons and other tidal areas. It names a broader group, including the American oystercatcher, piping plover, red knot, roseate tern and snowy plover, as birds of sandy beaches, estuaries and inlets, without placing any of them at Sebastian Inlet in particular.

The breeding season sets the calendar. FWC says wrack lines, the lines of seaweed and debris left by the tide, are especially important from February through August to feed and shelter chicks, and that disturbance from people is a leading threat to nesting shorebirds, partly reduced by posting signs that keep people and pets from getting too close to a colony. At Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida State Parks already prohibits pets on the beach.

The black skimmer is one of the birds the Sebastian Inlet District has photographed at the inlet, and FWC's trail page lists it among the species highlights for Sebastian Inlet State Park, along with the brown noddy, reddish egret and wood stork.