There’s something comical about baby anhingas. They were yelling for Mom to feed them and I could hear them from far across the pond.
A great egret waiting for her offspring to arrive.
A little blue heron was still flirting, trying to attract a mate.
Snowy egrets showing off.
Crazy antics at the bird rookery in north Tampa in May.
The butterfly garden at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo was living up to it’s name with tons of butterflies the morning I went in early May. There were lots of different ones besides the usual monarchs.
Lots of color blooming as well.
I caught one hummingbird flash by.
Woods storks are listed as an uncommon bird on the All About Birds page and are listed as federally threatened. They are fairly common here in the Tampa bay area. I see them pretty regularly at most of the parks that I visit. There is a rookery in Tampa that has a large population of them nesting. I love going to see them in the late spring and watch them raising their babies. The babies are just as homely as the parents. These were taken in late April.
Many of the storks were still flirting and building nests,
On the trail at Fort Desoto. A butterfly and some kind of fruit that I have never noticed before. The red really stuck out in all of the green right on the trail.
A snowy egret trying to steal a snack from a fisherman.
Some of the birds near the fountain includes a loggerhead shrike, a female summer tanager and an ibis.
Dolphins were swimming around the pier.
Looking across the lagoon, lots of different shorebirds. The middle shot has black skimmers in the front and the bottom picture shows red knots.
It was the first week in May and the park had just recently opened. I got there early and was leaving before 10am and shot this from the pier. The beach was filling up fast. Time for me to head home.
I stopped by my new favorite turtle pond at McGough Nature Park in early May. I went there looking for birds but had to stop and watch the turtles napping for a few minutes.
I saw this hummingbird go by in a flash and landed on a branch right in front of me on the trail. She only stayed for a few seconds and then took off.
This black and white warbler was looking for bugs.
A redstart in the bushes.
A red eyed vireo high up in the tree.
My first yellow throated vireo. I watched him for a while as he picked up worms and caterpillars in the tree. This beautiful bird was having a feast. Fattening up before he heads north for the summer. I found him near the closed playground.
A quick early walk at Chesnut Park in early May. The park started to get crowded pretty quickly so I left and headed out to another park close by.
Possum Branch Preserve was void of people but not many birds there either. At least it was a nice walk outside.
A few birds there included a juvenile night heron and a red bellied woodpecker.
I caught this common snapping turtle cruising down the back trail. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snapper out in the wild. This one was pretty small.
Beautiful Blondie came by with her babies in early May. Swimming right by our dock.
A mallard family in one of our neighborhood ponds. They came running up to me to see if I had something to give them. I didn’t but someone has been feeding them.
A muscovy mom with her 8 babies in another pond. She started with 13. I’ve been keeping track of her on my walks and she’s now down to 5 babies but they are pretty big so they just might make it.
I found a spot close to home that I could get out and go for a walk after work. There were a few parking spots close by and on a weekday night there were spots open. It was already hot in early May and that sun was bright at 6pm. I found some ruddy turnstones hanging out in the rocks next to the sidewalk.
Walking along the causeway, looking first towards Tampa and then towards Clearwater.
From the spot I stopped to turn around, you can barely see the Tampa skyline.
This was a good spot for a couple of weeks when there wasn’t many other places to go or the ones that were open were packed with people. Only a few people on bikes whizzing by. And a few dolphins swimming by.
Luckily not many people thought the Botanical Gardens in Largo were still open. There was almost no one there in late April. I could sit quietly in the butterfly garden without people walking in front of me scaring away the butterflies.
I sat for a while hoping to see a hummingbird but there was no sight of any. I got the next best thing. A clearwing hummingbird moth buzzing around right next to me. This is the only place I’ve seen them before. They hover and feed like hummingbirds, not landing on the flower and then zip away to rest.
Still working on getting that perfect magnolia picture.
Some type of hawk was flying high up in the sky. This is extremely cropped. I couldn’t make out what it was but I don’t think it was a red shoulder. Might be a cooper’s hawk with that dark head.
Different patterns on the mangrove leaves along the boardwalk.
I finally was able to see a few migrating birds coming through in late April. Since the best place to see spring migration was closed (Fort Desoto Park) here in the area, we were thinking we wouldn’t get to see any birds coming through. Since some of the smaller parks were still open I was able to see a few birds. They were very skittish and stayed hidden in the bushes. Above are a hooded warbler, a redstart and an ovenbird (or at least I think it’s an ovenbird. May be a thrush of some type?).
I had not been to McGough Nature Park in Largo in years. It’s a small park that sits on the intercoastal waterway. I had heard there were a few migrating birds there so I headed out not expecting much. I had forgotten that the park has this great turtle pond. There’s a small dock that goes out over the pond and benches all around it. Turtles were all along the bank and it was very peaceful watching them hang out.
My Saturday morning “just being outside” shot from the boardwalk.