At the beginning of October I headed out to Fort Desoto to again, to look for flamingos. I had heard there were several at the North beach lagoon the day before. I got to the park right when it opened and made a quick stop at the East Beach turnaround for a few sunrise shots. I took the above with my camera. The sun was already up and barely peeking out.

I should have skipped the sunrise and gone straight to the North beach lagoon. When I got out to the beach I could see the tiny pink specks far north and had a long walk to get out there to get closer. There were already a few people out there getting some shots of the 3 flamingos feeding. I was barely halfway into my 15-20 minute walk up the beach when I saw flashes of pink take flight. All 3 flamingos took off away from the beach and flew over the trees and were gone. I managed to fire off a few shots as they headed in the opposite direction. I was bummed. They were not seen for days after that.

It was okay that the flamingos left. I was still at the park early and there were tons of birds still around. Both a sanderling and a dowitcher were doing a high step.

I found part of the oystercatcher family. There was one parent and two juveniles (the juveniles don’t have yellow eyes yet and the beak tip is still black). One of the juveniles was banded as a baby with red bands so we’ll be able to see how long he stays around the park.

I drove through the boat ramp parking lot hoping to spot the flamingos there and noticed this barge that looked like it had crab trap equipment on it. I’ve never seen a set up like this one. The anhinga and pelican were making good use of it.

I had to stop and take a picture of this cool bug outside the bathrooms. I’ve never seen this bug before. After doing some googling it’s an antlion lapwing which are common in central Florida. It was sitting out in the open and might make for a tasty meal for a bird.

A view of the newly built bay fishing pier from the end of the pier. The park demolished the old one and the pretty yellow bait fish store that was on the pier. Now there is just a big shelter in it’s place on the pier.

The sun was high up by the time I stopped at the bay pier.

The view from the bay pier looking down at the empty dog beach. The beach is always packed with dogs on the weekends so it was weird to see it so empty this early weekday morning.