A year ago, August of 2007 I told you about how these 3 rare birds had captured the hearts of people around Daytona Beach and managed to block off the beach to cars in my post: Rare Birds Put The Breaks On Beach Driving In Daytona

That post remained on the first page of Florida Information, Volusia County Information and Daytona Beach, FL Information until just recently. You all loved it that much!

Just recently Mom and Dad returned to Daytona Beach, they must love our hospitality! My hairdresser spotted them in the exact same spot they were at last year and we began to wait for the arrival of the baby.

Sunday evening I received a email that the first baby hatched on Friday and a second hatched on Sunday, however the Mom and Dad were not at the same spot, they were further south! I headed out early Monday morning in search of them.

My problem being I have a foot injury right now and am supposed to stay off my foot as much as possible. My friend told me he hiked 2 miles north to find the birds after parking near the Dunlawton Bridge. I can't afford to do that with the foot injury, so I stopped at two beach approaches and asked the gate person what they knew, and both knew nothing! Giving up I went to work and pulled up the newspaper onlineto see what I could find there.

BINGO! The newspaper told me exactly where I could find the happy couple and their new arrivals! Once again on a beach frequented by cars, they have blocked traffic in the area where the birds have nested (YAY!). Midori suggested I look on the internet and find the closest beach walkover and to my delight the walkover is right at the birds location. Now, to just find parking...

I left my house early this morning, found the address easily, parked at a store which warns anyone parking over 30 minutes will be towed. No problem there, I won't be that long! I then found the walkway to the beach and it is a narrow sidewalk between two tall condos, if you don't know it is there, you'd walk or drive right by it.

As I got to the beach, there they were... the proud parents... one baby was out running around with them, all were inside the area blocked off to keep them protected. It is so funny how they know that the area is just for them.

I took almost 200 photos in the 15 minutes I was there, of course I won't bore you with all 200, I picked out the best and will let you browse through them. The baby you do see I think is the one that was hatched on Friday. I am going to try to go back early on Saturday and see if the other baby is out walking around yet.

Hover your mouse pointer over the photos and you'll see a short description on each.

You're probably wondering how I know which bird is which? I really don't, I am going by what I read in the newspaper yesterday. It said that the male bird is smaller then the female.

I'm so excited I got to see this happy little couple again. This is the 2nd pair of birds (different species) that have returned back to Daytona from last year, that is something I've never been able experience before!