Another week in April and another trip down to Fort Desoto Park early in the morning. The beach looks deserted here but there were 20-30 people nearby looking in the bushes for birds.
When I walked out on the beach to get the sunrise picture I noticed a flock of royal terns along the water. It looked like they were pairing up. The males were bringing in fish to give to the ladies and some pairs were doing their mating dance. I didn’t see any actually mating on this morning.
The nanday parakeets were busy in their usual spot along the dead trees on the beach trail.
There wasn’t a lot of migrating birds this morning but I did manage to find a few. An indigo bunting was resting in the mangroves.
Prairie warblers were plentiful this migration.
A male orchard oriole high up in the tree.
We saw this plant with red fruit on it along one of the wooded trails. I don’t remember seeing it before. I think it’s an elliptica yellowwood. Not a Florida native plant but it was pretty. The park has been killing or pulling out all of the non-native plants in the park but they must have missed this one.
I stopped by the East Beach turnaround to look for shorebirds. It was quiet here as the sun was high up at this point.
A cargo ship goes by.
It was windy by the time I was taking my walk on the fishing pier before leaving.
Wonderful to see Fort Desoto’s birds and plants! I can almost smell the salt air with the wind!
Sand and salt all over my keyboard now.
Thank you.
Life goes on where you are. So many birds of different types. I’d love to walk that area.
Nice view from the fishing pier in the last photo. Beautiful variety of birds!
Beautiful shot.
This is a beautiful outing. Thank you so much for bringing us along. Aloha!
Those are such bright and colorful birds– what great captures!
I had to check out your about page. Your close ups of the birds are beautiful. Your camera gear is impressive! While taking family and individual images my camera bag carried gear such as yours. I need to pull the equipment back out, it’s just it was once a ‘job’. Prior to my empty nest experience, I carried my gear everywhere me and the kids went. I have been using my phone’s camera lately. It can shoot in RAW, which is super nice.
You are inspiring me to get my Nikon and lens out and start shooting again!
Take care and best wishes.