Redheaded woodpecker in St. Petersburg

On March 31, 2012March 31, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

I had read on Bird Brains that a redheaded woodpecker had been spotted in a neighborhood in St. Petersburg. Hanging out near a vacant lot that used to be a school. Since it’s really close to where I work, I headed down there after work last week. I thought it might be a needle in a haystack thing but after looking for close to an hour, I found it.

It looks like he might be a juvenile since the red feathers on his head are not completely filled out. He was sitting high up in a palm tree right on the road. This is only the 2nd one I’ve seen and the first in Florida. My first sighting was in a cemetery in Atlanta.

You can see his beautiful redhead from the back.

As I was taking pictures, a nice gentleman walking his dog stopped and asked what was so interesting. I told him about the rare redheaded woodpecker. He looked at it and then walked a few feet away and came back and said “There’s another redheaded woodpecker over here.” I said “Yes, but that’s a red bellied woodpecker which is more common.” He said “But he has a redhead.” He looked at me like I was crazy.

After a while he flew off farther away into a tree. The sun was going down quickly so I left and headed home.

I want to thank Don Margeson for keeping tabs and posting the sighting on Bird Brains.

Camera Critters

Saying goodbye to grown up baby owls

On March 26, 2012March 27, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography19 Comments

I found one of the baby owls high up in the tree scratching an itch.

The older sibling was even higher up sleeping. I found him through an opening in the branches.

Wood duck floating down the river by the owl tree.

A hawk flies by.

Butterflies and flowers are now everywhere.

After my trip to Fort Desoto to see the new owl family, I decided to stop by Kapok Park on the way home to see the two baby owls there one last time. I had heard they were flying around from branch to branch and really hard to find now that they have left the nest. Soon they’ll leave the park for good. I got there hoping to find them one last time. I kept looking high up in the tree and finally found the first one when it moved to scratch. I decided to walk around the boardwalk for a while and walking back I saw the other owl high up through the branches sitting in the sun. They grow up so fast. Now that they are grown up I’ll probably have the park all to myself. Just me, the dog walkers and joggers. There’s still a lot of great stuff there even without the owls. Now that it’s light after work, I’ll head there for a walk before heading home often.

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Great horned owl family #2

On March 25, 2012March 21, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Mom sleeping wedge into the tree. I stood there with several other people for about a half hour.

Finally, she starts to move around and we see a white speck!

Mom and baby are trying to stretch and move around in this tiny spot.

Mom scoots up and we get a good view of baby. It looks like there’s something wrong with one of baby’s eyes.

Baby sits by itself but mom looks down on it keeping watch.

This is the owl family from Fort Desoto. I got there when the owl was about 10-12 days old. I was excited to see it still white and fuzzy. Early in the morning while it still felt a little cold, the mom was sleeping and hiding the baby. As the morning warmed up, they both started to move around. This is a tiny nest. I won’t sugar-coat it. There were two babies born but within a week one of the babies was found dead on the ground by a park ranger or volunteer early in the morning. It was after a bad storm had moved through so the baby could have fallen or been blown out. Since the nest sits right on one of the paths that lead from the parking lot to the beach, the park roped off a good part of the area. These were taken two weeks ago so by now the baby is pretty big. I have seen more recent pictures of it and the eye looks okay now so whatever was wrong seemed to have healed quickly.

“I want more food” says the baby pelican.

On March 14, 2012March 8, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

This mom has her hands full with 3 babies begging for food.

“Are you my parent? Then feed me.” This one looks really hungry. He probably knows the parent has fish in his pouch and it just waiting for him to burp it back up. Yum!

“I need some ketchup for your head.” Two older babies playing.

You can see the veins in the soft pink pouch.

The parent looks tired.

More baby pelicans at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. I got there as the parents were about to start feeding the babies. These are all pictures of some of the first-born ones this spring. They are all around a month old. There are still a few more that had just been born while I was there. Now that they are bigger and moving around it was fun to watch them. Most of the time they were begging to be fed. A few times some of them seemed to be playing. They grow up so fast.

Injured birds

On March 11, 2012March 7, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

This is Stumpy (that’s what the volunteers call him). He guards the entrance to the sanctuary.

Stumpy lost a foot. He was treated here and released back in the wild but he still hangs around. He knows it’s the best restaurant in town for a pelican.

When I was leaving, I saw these two guys come in with an injured bird.

I did not find out what specifically happened. It looks like he had a severed wing. It could have been caught in fishing wire and when he tried to fly off it severed it? They must have called ahead because someone came out immediately to greet them and take the bird. Luckily for this bird, the guys saw the bird needed help and made the effort to save him. Then they drove the injured bird to the sanctuary from wherever they were when they found the bird. I’m glad the guys were looking out for it. I have a feeling this bird will be a permanent resident.

One of the workers at the sanctuary takes the bird, give him a quick look over and head into the hospital. This is a typical event for the team at the sanctuary. It’s weird to see them in action. Usually, you just see the birds in the rehab pens.

For more info on this bird hospital check out Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

Blurry ducks (two lifer sightings) and a sunset – Skywatch Friday

On March 8, 2012March 8, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

My first common loon. I’ve been seeing these guys floating out in the bay from very far away but I wasn’t sure if they were really loons. They just looked like little black blobs floating. As I was driving on the access road along the causeway, looking for the long tailed duck, I saw this guy floating close to the causeway. It was the first time I had seen one that close. Of course, I took this picture right into the sun but I was excited to see a new bird.

Early on Saturday morning, right after I saw the loon, I came across this group of cormorants floating together out in the bay. At first glance, I thought it was a big log or something floating along. Then when I held my camera up and zoomed in I realized it was a flock of birds. They seemed to be in a hurry swimming across the bay.

Still looking for the long tailed duck, I see this duck swimming alone in the waves. I can’t tell what it is all curled up like that.

She looks up! It’s a female lesser scaup. She was all alone.

Finally, after work I find the long tailed duck. I started seeing posts on the Florida Bird Brains forum about this rare duck around 2/21. It took me a couple of days to get out there and two trips to find it. It was very far out when I first got there and could barely see it. I looked it up before I headed out so I would know what to look for. At first I thought I would not be able to even get a remote picture of it but then it took off and started flying towards the causeway. He headed west of me so the above it still very far away and heavily cropped. It was a lifer for me and I may not ever see one of these again so I kept this one. I’m going to try to look for it again though.

It started to get dark so after seeing the long tailed duck I head home. The above view was in my rear view mirror so I pulled off on the access road and snapped a few shots of the sun going down. This will be my view home from work until the time changes.

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday.