Four Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola) feeding on the beach at the Canaveral National Seashore while dark rainstorms move just offshore. This seems appropriate because the Latin name “pluvia” means rain, while “Pluvialis” implies this is a “rain-bird” though no one seems to quite know what the association is. “Squatarola”, while sounding interesting, actually refers to the Common Plover using the Venetian name that bored ornithologists availed themselves of rather than working at being a little more imaginative. So late in the year, these birds are decked out in their summer breeding plumage and must be a few holdouts waiting to migrate to the far northern tundras of Alaska and Canada where they will nest.






Hanging out with the rest of the shorebirds waiting to migrate north.