Tombstones and tickseed

On August 8, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals, Tampa bay sights6 Comments

In mid-May I headed down to south Sarasota for my annual trip to Myakka River State Park to see the tickseed blooming. I left early in the dark since the traffic going through Sarasota is so bad now. What use to be an hour trip from my old house in Tampa is now an hour and a half if I don’t hit traffic so I wanted to be early enough to miss the morning rush hour. I got down to the exit in record time and since I had 20 minutes before the gate opened at the park I stopped in at the nearby Sarasota National Cemetery. So many tombstones. All members of any Armed Forces can be buried here. The cemetery is fairly new, opening in 2007.

The Patriot Plaza amphitheater opened in 2014 for memorials and ceremonies. It was quiet before 8am this morning, only a few maintenance men and myself.

As I got closer to the park I noticed what looked like a prescribed burn along the road. I was hoping that wasn’t the case in the regular part of the park.

Just past the entrance I pulled over and got out and shot the above with my phone. The sun was up but it was cloudy or mostly hazy. This is what the two lane roads look like as you travel across back roads in central Florida. The road looked like a mantenance road to nowhere. This is part of the park which is over 37,000 acres but visitors are not allowed in the outlying areas.

Once in the park I pulled over at the first field to see the tickseed. Yellow flowers forever. It is native to the area and grows wild. Since this is an undisturbed prairie it grows all along the fields here.

I also stopped where everyone else stops. The first bridge you come to in the park that goes over the river. There’s always a lot of alligators in this area and you can see them from high up on the bridge. I spent several hours at the park until the heat got the best of me. I took tons of pictures so more on those later.

Around the yard in late April.

On August 5, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

My hanging petunias did really well over the winter and added a lot of color to the backyard. The problem with petunias is that they don’t produce a lot of nectar so they aren’t big on attracting critters. I didn’t see any bees or butterflies around them. They started to die back in May so I replanted the 2 pots with hummingbird friendly plants.

My neighbor’s hibiscus bushes were in full bloom in the front courtyard (our townhouse shares a small courtyard with our neighborhood)

It’s always fun watching the squirrels getting water in the bird bath. I’ve read that they only take dirt baths so I’m not expecting to see them splashing around.

This cute little juvenile tufted titmouse was up in the oak tree out back. I went outside to get this shot. You can tell he’s a young one with that bit of beige around his beak.

His parents were busy coming to the suet feeder that I still had out so I sat down and watched them for a while. I took the suet down in late May once it was so hot and most of the migrating birds had moved through.

I was able to get a good shot of a chickadee while I was sitting outside watching the titmouse.

A Carolina wren also stopped by.

The squirrels were getting frisky on the unused bird nest box.

I was a day late in early May when everyone was seeing the northern lights in the lower 48 states. They were seen as far down as central Florida and several people I know got some great shots of the lights near Tampa the night before. There was a chance to see them again the next night. I went out at peak time and kept my eye out but the lights didn’t get far enough south the 2nd night and were only seen from the top half of the country. I did manage to catch the Starlink satellite array that went up (the line of white dots in the middle right).

I went out to the backyard where it was darker but still didn’t see the lights. I’m not out in the middle of the dark golf course late at night often. Too many questionable critters lurking but I noticed how you could really see the stars on this clear night. The above was taken with my phone. One of these days I will get out here with my camera and tripod (maybe in the winter so I don’t get eaten alive by mosquitoes).

Some of the sunsets in late April from the lake across the street.

Where are all of the birds?

On August 3, 2024July 25, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I made one last trip to the bird rookery in north Tampa in early May. I was planning to go back again at the end of the month but never made it back. Above is a phone shot of most of the little island. I know I’ve said this many times but it feels like there are less and less birds nesting here each year. The island has not changed sizes. It hasn’t been disturbed. Are there less and less birds or is there another rookery somewhere else that they are going to now that we don’t know about?

I saw very few baby wood storks. Much less than this time last year. I did see several couples still flirting and mating. Maybe they are all just later this year.

The little blue herons hadn’t started nesting yet.

I did see several anhinga nests in the back. These guys were a little older. Anhingas usually nest early in spring.

There were a few great egret nests with babies. These were the youngest ones I saw.

This Mom was busy feeding her babies.

These babies were almost as big as Mom and were quite a handful when she was trying to feed them.

I did not see any cattle egrets at the rookery this year. While they usually nest a little later they are starting to build nests by now so it was a bummer not to see them with their bright colored breeding beaks and feathers. There were about half the glossy ibis than last year. They nest in the back of the island so those babies aren’t visible until they are much older anyway. By this time last year there were a lot of juveniles in front of the island waiting to be fed. We’ll see what next year brings.

A hot walk at the wetlands

On August 1, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I made it to Roosevelt Wetlands not long after sunrise in early May.

A least tern flies close by.

There’s been a couple of skimmers coming here to skim the lake. The bay is a couple of miles away and these birds are usually along the shoreline but occasionally they skim the lakes.

There are several pairs of black necked stilts nesting here. There were a few couples that weren’t on nests yet and were close to the trail. It’s early for babies so I’ll plan on coming here several times early in the summer.

A spotted sandpiper was in the muck. They usually only spend winters here so this one was late leaving.

Dragonflies on the trail.

Across the pond I saw this great old snapping turtle coming up for air. His back was covered in moss and he scooted along in the shallow part.

Color on the trail. The first one is Indian blanket flower. I planted a few of these in my front yard where there is full sun. They are drought tolerant and need full sun and I love seeing them all over the trail here. They don’t get watered here at all. Mine died immediately. The yellow flowers are tickseed. There’s just a little here and I was planning a trip down to Myakka State Park in mid-May when the park is full of it.