My first great blue heron nest

On February 27, 2013February 13, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

In the early morning light, I stopped by the great blue heron nest at Circle B Bar Reserve. The parent was standing up but no sign of babies. They must have still been sleeping.

I stopped by the nest again later on my way out of the reserve and the parent was flapping his wings over something.

Then I saw a little head pop up looking over the nest.

The parent was busy preening while baby looked around.

The baby looked just like the parent. Only smaller.

I think it was ready to be feed. It started begging.

This is my first great blue heron baby. The couple sat on the nest last year and did not have babies so I was pretty excited this year that they had success. There were two babies seen at the nest early on but now there is only one left. Not sure what happened to the other one. Did it fall out of the nest? Was it stolen from another bird? The nest area is plagued with hawks, crows, eagles and vultures. Mom chased off an osprey trying to eat his fish a few branches above the nest. My fingers are crossed this one makes it to adulthood. The nest is out in the marsh and high up so these shots are extremely cropped.

Injured birds around the fishing pier – Skywatch Friday

On February 21, 2013February 21, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography18 Comments

Hubby and I stopped by the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier to look for the rare kittiwake that had been sighted there earlier that week. We looked, along with several other birders, for over an hour with no luck. I did get a lot of “birds in flight” practice that morning.

I realized after I cropped this up that the royal tern had a hook in his beak. This was a common sight around the pier.

I saw another royal tern on the other side of the pier with a hook pulling on his skin. He was trying to swallow a big fish. He got the fish down but not without doing more damage to the beak area. I’m not sure how someone would be able to catch this one. He was flying pretty good and stayed on the other side of the pier that you can’t get to.

Another royal tern with a fish.

He flew right over my head. No hooks here.

This common loon has a hook in it’s beak.

This loon was showing off. This has been a banner winter for loons in the Tampa bay area. We only get them in the winter here around Tampa and last winter I only saw 2.

Back down for another fish.

Ruddy turnstone posing on an oyster bed.

A view of the Sunshine Skyway bridge from the rest stop. The bridge takes you from St. Petersburg over the bay to Sarasota and south Florida. This new bridge opened in 1985 after a freighter crashed into the old one doing enough damage to close it down back in 1980. Part of the old bridge is still used as a fishing pier.

The couple of times that I’ve been out on the fishing pier, it has been packed with people fishing. The birds, including gulls, terns and pelicans, hang out here to fish as well. They also like to steal the bait fish from the fisherman. The biggest problem is that the birds will go after a fish that is already on a hook and the birds get hooked too. There are educational boards all over the fishing pier with instructions on how to reel in a hooked bird and take the hook out. It is clear to never cut the line. The bird will die with a hook and fishing line trailing behind it. After spending time on the pier, you will get the impression that most people don’t care and will just cut the line. I say most because there are a few people out there with a soul and will help release the bird the right way. With the amount of birds flying around with hooks, most just cut the line. The local bird rescue and rehab company has been having financial problems and has stopped taking in injured birds. A new group of volunteers are working on starting up a new rescue group. With all of the birders out on this pier recently looking for the kittiwake, there’s been a growing concern on how to help out at the pier.

There’s so much more to this story. I’ll save that for a later date. I still stand behind my thought “No fishing should be allowed on fishing piers.” Like that would ever happen in Florida.

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My first yellow-headed blackbird and some boring other birds

On February 17, 2013February 17, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography11 Comments

A horrible picture of my first sighting of a yellow-headed blackbird. Birders had been posting about seeing this fairly rare bird here in a neighbor almost an hour from my house for a few weeks. He had only been sighted late in the day so I finally headed out there on a recent Sunday afternoon while hubby was watching football. I looked around for an hour and didn’t see him so I left and ran over to Medard Park which is close by for a quick walk over the boardwalk. I headed back to the pond to look for the rare bird again and after looking for almost 2 hours, he showed up right before dark. And, he was right in the middle of a pond so this is extremely cropped.

On my way into Medard Park, I see a few vultures eating an armadillo.

I think this is a caspian tern, just coming out of the water.

This anhinga was catching bait fish right below the boardwalk. Since I had my fixed lens I couldn’t zoom in and this was all I got of her. The fish looks nice and tasty!

Due to the overabundance of apple snails, the park is full of limpkins.

Great blue heron shaking off some water.

This alligator was laying in the pond in the neighborhood where I saw the yellow-headed blackbird. How’d you like to walk your dog around that thing? Yes, people were out walking their dogs around the pond while I was there.

So this is what I do when Hubby is watching football (or playing golf). Drive around town looking for birds. It was too nice an afternoon to be indoors doing chores (which is what I should have been doing). The chores usually wait until a weeknight after work when it’s dark anyway.

LorikArt

Love is in the air – Skywatch Friday

On February 14, 2013February 6, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography19 Comments

Caution – Spoony porn below. Excessive pinkness going on. Proceed at your own risk!

I stop at the alligator exhibit and see two spoonbills sitting together in the short palm trees. I don’t think anything of it but hope that a future nest would be great. I didn’t want to get too excited. Two years ago a couple nested here but last year they did not. I walked around the area for a few minutes and then was about to head back to the see the baby elephant when the below started to happen.

Is it???? Yes, it is!!! Spoonbills mating. I started snapping away. No one else noticed. They were all too busy looking at the sleeping alligators below.

Yes, I know, I’m intruding on their bedroom. But they were doing in right in the middle of the zoo. They could have found some nice quiet woods anywhere else.

It was over in a flash. Or at least 20 snaps.

You’re thinking “It’s over. He’s outta there.”

He flew down to the ground close by and picked up a stick. Not just any ole stick. This was his third stick he picked up. He was finding just the right one.

He flew into the tree with his stick.

And flew over to her and presented her with the stick. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. No diamonds, no candy. Just a stick.

She’s like “Gimmi the stick all ready.”

He gives here the stick.

She takes it and puts in the crook of the palm tree. After this they settled down and looked like they were ready for a nap.

Sometimes timing is everything. I had about two hours to kill two Sunday mornings ago so I headed to the Lowry Park zoo which is close by to see the baby elephant again. When I first got there the baby elephant was way in the back of the exhibit playing behind a bunch of logs. I decided to do a quick lap of the zoo and see if any wild birds were hanging around the alligator exhibit yet. Wild egrets and herons nest there in the spring. They build nests in the big oak and palm trees around the exhibit. There were already a lot of great egrets sitting on nests high up in the oak trees. I saw the two spoonbills sitting together on a short palm tree and thought “Wouldn’t it be great if they nested here again like they did two years ago.” I was just about to walk away to head back to the elephants when I saw the flash of pink flying.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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A quick stop at the Safety Harbor fishing pier

On February 4, 2013February 5, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography18 Comments

A common loon floating around the fishing pier.

The red-eyed horned grebe is back at the fishing pier this winter. There were 4 of them floating around but stayed away from each other and the other 3 were pretty far out.

Common tern fly by.

Pelican going in for a fish.

Head first!

Synchronized fishing.

There’ s always a laughing gull trying to get a freebie from the pelicans.

“I’m outta here.” says the pelican to the gull.

Another sunny morning stop at the Safety Harbor fishing pier. I did not see any manatees this morning but a few dolphins were far out.

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Too cute for it’s own good!

On February 2, 2013February 1, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights12 Comments

“I know I’m cute!”

“I’m trying to get that bug under Mom’s foot.”

“I do NOT have big ears!”

“Mom, I’m ready for my nap.”

“This dirt does not taste like chocolate.”

“Can I clean this dirt off with this pole?”

“Mom says I have to stay close to her.”

The baby elephant was born on 12/23 at Lowry Park Zoo. Her name is Mpumi which means “successful” in Swati. I headed to the zoo early in the morning. Hubby even went with me. She was nursing with mom at the other end of the exhibit when we first got there and you could barely see her. We walked around the area for a few minutes and when we came back she was bouncing across the field. She was so cute. All of the kids went crazy. At one point she was wandering off away from the other female adults. She walked over to a big rock and was checking it out with her trunk. She made a loud sneeze noise and the mom looked up and realized the baby had wandered off. The mom ran over to her and pushed her back to the group with her trunk. Everyone went crazy again. We stood there for close to an hour watching. I can’t wait to get back to see her grow up.

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