I was watching the pelicans diving for fish in late December. I got to Fort Desoto Park right at sunrise and stopped at the beach before heading to the woods to look for some birds.

Two rare birds had been hanging out here for several weeks. The above is not one of them. Starlings are common here but he looked pretty shining in the sun.

A grooved-billed ani and a smooth-billed ani were hanging out together near the bay pier wooded area. I saw them both briefly but was only able to get shots of the smooth-billed one before they both took off over the trees. They aren’t very attractive but they are cool birds anyway. Both were not new birds. The only time I  saw a grooved-bill was in 2011 and there was a smooth-billed one here back in 2017.

After seeing the anis I went for a walk on the beach to look for shorebirds.

Plovers were plentiful including the black bellied plover and piping plover above. The piping plover was missing his feet and I’ve seen him several times at the park so he must be doing okay.

Looking across the lagoon, reddish egrets were feeding when a fish jumped out and made a big splash. They were both like “Where did it go?”.

As I was leaving the park I saw something black flying across the road so I pulled over and realized it was the anis in the berry bushes. The smooth-billed one was out in the open and I though he was going to eat the berries but he was just fanning himself.

This was the only shot I got of them both (one in the top left and one in the far right bottom). The grooved-billed ani seemed really shy compared to the other one.  They are still at the park, several months later.

I made a quick stop at Crescent Lake Park on the way home to see if the white pelicans were there. Only a handful were hiding in the shade under the big banyan tree.

The only winter ducks that had showed up so far were a few lesser scaup. I checked back here weeks later and there were tons of white pelicans so more on those later.