Month: June 2012

More baby black necked stilts

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

The first family I found back in mid-May was still in the pond by the front entrance to the waste plant. This was taken a few days later. The baby was just a little bit bigger. All of these pictures were taken from the car window. I didn’t want to get out and spook the stilts.

I found a 2nd family across the street. This baby is only a few days old. It was so tiny. These were taken with my 400mm and extremely cropped.

The tiny baby had a sibling that was hiding in the weeds.

The parent was doing the broken wing display even though I was sitting in the car. They fly away from the baby and act hurt to try to distract the predator away from the baby. I did not stay long here at all, only a few minutes.

Another adult was feeding at a different part of the ditch. There seems to be more stilts here this summer than in the past. Maybe, the ones being born here keep coming back.

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Don’t go to Sea World! Come to Fort Desoto!

On By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals6 Comments

Baby dolphin swimming to the right of mom.

The baby was heading right towards me.

Baby dolphin jumping out right in front of the pier.

More dolphins swimming around the pier.

Three dolphins swimming together. The baby was on the left.

A big turtle came swimming up to the fishing pier. This was the first time I’ve seen a turtle at the pier.

Close up!

Why travel to central Florida and pay a ton of money to go watch dolphins jump in a small pool when you can come spend the day at Fort Desoto for $5 a carload. You can watch wild and free dolphins swimming and jumping around the fishing pier. You can spend the day swimming and building sand castles. After a picnic lunch on the beach on a recent Sunday, I walked down to the fishing pier while hubby took a nap on the beach chair. There weren’t a lot of people fishing that day but there were at least 10 dolphins swimming around. I stayed on the pier for almost two hours watching the dolphin show. Right before I left, the turtle came swimming up. What a great finish. If that doesn’t convince you, I just missed the two manatees that had passed under the pier minutes before I got there. I could see them out in the distance but they were too far away to get pictures. Meanwhile, I shouldn’t be letting out the best kept secret spot in Florida. Then I’ll only have myself to blame when it gets too crowded.

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Hungry baby starlings in my backyard

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

We recently re-sodded our backyard. We’ve been watering almost everyday and that seems to bring a lot of worms to the yard. Which also brings a lot of birds looking for worms. My hubby said last Saturday “There’s a lot of birds running around on the ground.” I quickly peeked out and said “Oh, those are starlings.” He noticed that the black birds were feeding the brown birds.  He said “Why would the black ones be feeding those other birds?” I took a longer look and said “They’re feeding babies!” We had several parents with at least 10 babies running around the backyard all day. I don’t know where they nested but it must have been close by. The babies looked like they were foraging for food but still kept running to the parent to be fed. They were relentless, constantly screaming at the adults. It was fun to watch them.  All above taken through the dining room window. I didn’t want to go outside and scare them away. They looked hungry.

Baby black necked stilts at the waste plant.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

“Life is good so far.”

“Who is that bird in the water?”

“Gotta itch.”

“What do you want, crazy lady with the black thing stuck to your face?”

Yes, I work really close to a large waste-to-energy plant. There are water run off ditches that run along side of the waste plant. The advantage to this is that there are always birds in the ditches. On my way to get lunch I usually keep my eye open for anything interesting hanging around. Every spring the ditches are home to a handful of black necked stilts. Last year, we had several babies so I kept my eyes open this year.  One night, a couple of weeks ago, I drove slowly along the road and noticed two parents together. I pulled off on the grass and saw the babies. They were only a few days to a week old. Unfortunately, it had been cloudy and rainy for several days so it was tough to get good sunny pictures of the babies. Plus, they stay pretty far over on the other side of the ditch and this family was right in front of the entrance to the waste plant so I stayed in my car and took these out the window. I usually stay inside anyway because these stilts are pretty skittish and I didn’t want to freak them out. I took a handful of pictures and left. Time to go home.

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Warning – circle of life picture below – Gators and birds

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals7 Comments

Juvenile snowy egret sitting on a post.

Two adult snowy egrets fighting in trees. Could be a territorial dispute, or maybe she just has a headache.

Juvenile male cardinal just starting to get his red feathers.

I didn’t see him catch the bird. I heard splashing around in the water and turned around and saw this. An alligator had gotten a bird and other alligators were thinking about trying to steal it from him.

The alligator swam off away from the other alligators but came pretty close to the boardwalk.

This was another alligator I saw just as he was swallowing. You can just barely see one last feather hanging out of his mouth.

On my last trip to Gatorland in Orlando back in mid-May, the alligators were very active. I guess it’s the heat that had finally set in. Mating season is just starting up for them. They are well fed at the park but occasionally the wild birds get too close and the alligators do what they are born to do. This trip I saw it happen twice. It’s sad because those birds could have babies waiting for them to bring back food to the nest. There are hundreds of nest along the boardwalk and across the lake and I’m sure the park doesn’t take roll to see who is missing. They will just let nature take it’s course. These are wild birds that come to nest near the alligators because the alligators keep other predators away such as raccoons and snakes. But there are risks.  By now, most of the baby birds have grown up and are leaving the nests so I probably won’t make it back to Gatorland (or as I like to call it “Birdland”) until next spring.

Big white and pink things at Circle B Bar Reserve.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography14 Comments

When I first got down to the end of Marsh Rabbit Run trail, this is what I saw in the marsh in front of me. Mostly wood storks, great egrets and a few great blue herons.

To the left, the corner of the marsh had even more birds with a few spoonbills thrown in.

Everyone was busy either feeding or preening. I didn’t notice that white pelican in the middle until I got home and cropped this picture.

Spoonbill showing me his “spoon” bill.

The marsh was full. It’s been a long time since there were so  many wading birds at the reserve.

Spoonbill trying to find a spot to land.

I thought this would be my last trip to Circle B Bar Reserve for the summer. It gets so hot there and the wildlife activity slows down in the hottest months. I usually start spending more time along the coast trying to get a sea breeze. I didn’t think I would find too much but was hoping for a stray spring migrating bird hanging around. When I got down to the end of the trail and saw the marsh filled with wading birds I thought it was worth the 45 minute drive over. The water levels around the area had been really low due to the lack of rain and I guess all of the waders in the area came here since there was still a fair amount of water in the marsh. Most of the smaller marsh ponds here have already dried up. It was nice to see all of the big white and pink birds hanging out together.  And no, this wasn’t my last trip for the summer. Two days later I heard there were new late baby sandhill cranes in the park so back I went the next weekend. More on those later.

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Crazy lunatic tricolored herons

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

The three stooges. This was the first nest you came to on the boardwalk so they were greeting everyone that came in that morning. They must be one of the first babies that were born this spring. They are almost fully grown.

Even when the babies look grown up they still have that spiky hair sticking up on the top of their heads that make them look so comical.

These birds were jumping around waiting for mom to come back with food.

Upclose profile. He’s probably 6-8 weeks old.

Parent (on the left) feeding one of it’s almost grown offspring. The one on the far right is waiting his turn.

The parent on the left is running away from his screaming crazy babies.

“Feed me, feed me” These juvenile tricolored herons were screaming all morning. They are now much more animated and louder as they get older.

On my third trip to Gatorland to see the nesting wild birds in the rookery there, the baby tricolored herons were growing up fast. They are the funniest birds to watch out of all the big water birds that nest there. The great egrets and blue herons scream but don’t look as comical as the tricolored herons do. There were juveniles only a few months old walking on the rails of the boardwalk. They got pretty close to the photographers there. I kept having to back up to take pictures. It was a lot of fun watching these guys grow up.

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End of my spring migration at Fort DeSoto

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography22 Comments

I don’t know what this is. It looks bigger than a yellow rumped warbler.  It was bathing at the fountain. Could it be a female American redstart?  It looks like one from the Stokes Birding Guide. If so, it’s my first one.

Orange eating an orange. Baltimore oriole at one of the fruit feeders.

I think this is a wood thrush. He was sitting on the bottom of the fountain.

My first and only indigo bunting shot. I saw a few others from really far away but this was the only one that got close to us at the fountain.

Starling taking a bath.

I was told this is a yellow warbler. This was my first sighting of one. I agree with Deb’s comment on this one. It looks more like a female hooded warbler than a yellow one. It’s still a lifer either way.

About a tenth of the crowd that was gathering at the mulberry woods at Fort Desoto. There’s a small open field with a short stone fountain in the middle. Everyone was standing around waiting for birds to land on the fountain. I only had my long lens that morning so I could only get a small smattering of the crowd that was there.

I can say I was there! Two weekends during the 2012 spring migration at Fort Desoto. I met tons of people. Learned a lot of new little birds. And took thousands of bad pictures. Ron at Pinellas Birds said the week before Memorial Day that it was winding down. There were still a few late migraters coming through though so I’ll still head out and keep my eyes open. Now I can’t wait until fall migration.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday  Our World Tuesday Graphic