Redheads and a new bird

On August 27, 2012August 28, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography18 Comments

“Hey Bob, come look at all of these people down here staring at me.” says the redheaded woodpecker.

“Why are they all standing around on our dirt road? There shouldn’t be anything here but us and the cows.”

“Maybe there’s something in this hole that’s caught their attention.”

“They’re looking at you two, silly.” says the kestrel that was watching us from another pole.

“I thought they were looking for me.” says the bobwhite from behind the fence.

I went up to Hernando county, north of Tampa, to find the swallow tail kites. I also found a few other cool things. I finally got a decent sighting of a redheaded woodpecker in Florida. I saw one from far away in St. Petersburg earlier this spring. I’ve seen them several times in Atlanta. There were two on the dirt road hanging out on a utility pole. I heard they had nested earlier in the spring in another pole but we did not see any juveniles anywhere around. Several people were standing around watching the woodpeckers when we all noticed the kestrel watching us. Most of the kestrels on the wires were pretty skittish. They would take off flying if you stopped the car but this one just sat there for a few minutes watching.

I finally saw my first bobwhite in the wild. I’ve heard them several times at Circle B Bar Reserve calling but could never find them. This one was sitting back on an inside fence. I took the above shot from the car. I was afraid if I got out he would take off.

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Flying kites high in the sky

On August 26, 2012August 26, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Swallow tail kite.

Swallow tail kite. It looks like he was about to grab something.

Two swallow tail kites.

Mississippi kite flying right over my head.

Mississippi kite.

I had heard the kites were back flying over the cow pastures up in Hernando county. The area is about an hour north of Tampa. Last year in July I made it up there but only saw the swallow tail kites from very far away. This year I got up there around 8am. There were a few other cars driving along the dirt roads looking for the kites. I saw the swallow tail kites pretty early. It wasn’t until 11am that I saw my first ever mississippi kite. There were several of us standing on the side of the dirt road taking pictures of the red headed woodpeckers when what looked like a ghost bird flew right over our heads. It’s a pretty rare bird here so everyone was excited to see it come close enough to the road to get pictures. But in reality, it’s not that cool of a bird. It’s kind of boring. My hubby said later “You drove all of the way up there for that?” I replied “Well yes, it catches and eats dragonflies in mid-flight.” Of course, I didn’t get a shot of that. Maybe next year. Besides the kites, there were other birds I don’t get to see too often so more to come on the dirt road trip.

A beautiful redhead in a cemetery

On August 20, 2012August 21, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography16 Comments

Right side.

Now left side.

From the back.

Entire front.

One of the many robins.

“What are you doing here lady?” said Whiskers, the squirrel.

Last December I had seen a redheaded woodpecker high up in the trees and I think it was a juvenile. It was dark and cloudy that day when I was at Oakland Cemetery so I only got a far away blurry shot of it. Since I was back in Atlanta for the 4th of July, I headed out to the cemetery with Hubby in hopes of finding it again. There were two there. One was high up in the trees and the other one came down and landed close by on a utility pole in front of me. They never got close to each other so I only have single shots of them. I wonder if they nest there. Was that juvenile I saw in December an offspring of the couple and maybe was born that summer? It would be pretty great if these fairly rare woodpeckers were nesting in downtown Atlanta.

It was worth braving the heat to find these birds. Oh yeah, there were also tons of robins at the cemetery. And about a million squirrels. I didn’t see any chipmunks though. We don’t have them in central Florida so it’s fun to see them when we visit Atlanta.

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The life of a bridge pelican – Skywatch Friday

On August 16, 2012August 9, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Brown pelican taking off in front of the bridge.

Pelican flying by in front of the bridge.

Pelican preening.

Posing (I think he was trying to sleep standing up).

Taking a break. This one has a bluer bill than most. With that brown head, I wonder if this is a juvenile. As I was editing this, I noticed the fishing wire hanging off his foot in the back right side of the picture.

Not sure what happened to this bird. Looks like a nasty scrape. Will the salt water help that heal?

Stretching his wings.

It’s a hard knock life for a pelican that hangs out at a fishing pier. They were diving around getting lots of bait fish and many were waiting by the fishermen hoping for a handout. The risk of getting a fishing hook or getting tangled up in fishing wire is great here. It was a quiet afternoon when I was there but normally, on the weekends, the pier is lined up with fishing poles. There was already one pelican being picked up by someone to take to the bird sanctuary in a crate when I got there. I’ve heard there are volunteers from the sanctuary that walk the pier on the weekends looking for hooked birds. There are signs all over the pier on how to catch and unhook a bird but most people don’t bother and just cut the line based on number of birds that get taken to the sanctuary each year. Maybe we should ban fishing from fishing piers. Then just call them bird piers. I’m sure that will go over really well.

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Debby in my backyard

On August 4, 2012August 4, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

A wet green heron was sitting on the dock. It was dark and gloomy all weekend.

Wet blue jay on my feeder.

Wet house sparrow eating.

Looking down the channel, you can’t see our neighbor’s dock. Everything was under water. The water was just starting to creep up into his yard.

Now our dock is under water and water was everywhere.

On Tuesday morning, I looked out the window while I was getting ready for work. This duck family had just climbed on the dock and was taking a nap. They looked tired. The water was just at the top of the dock and by the time I left the water had crept up onto the dock. I don’t know if the family had moved to higher ground yet.

We were all very lucky in our neighborhood. Other than the tide bringing the water levels up, we didn’t really have any damage. A tornado hit in south St. Petersburg and there was significant damage there. It was really just an inconvenience to most people. It rained most of the weekend and on Monday night the tide got so high that several of the bridges were closed. Hubby had to drive the long way around to get home and it took him almost 2 hours since everyone had to go that way. The big Sunshine Skyway Bridge broke a record and was closed for more than 3 days due to high winds. Now it’s August and the summer rains are here so it rains almost every day.

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