Taking the long way home

Posted on November 13, 2023 by dinajohnston

I was out running errands one morning this summer and I had my camera in the car so I took a long slow back road to get home. There wasn’t much traffic on this road so I pulled over to get some shots of the yellow tickseed blooming and the clouds moving in.

I found a cow pasture with a sandhill crane family feeding on the bugs in the cow patties. The couple had a juvenile with them.

A cow was poking her head through the fence to get to the good grass.

A swallow tail kite flies overhead while I was pulled over taking pictures of the cow.

Meadowlarks were singing along the cow pasture.

Why did the vulture cross the road? I saw this vulture sitting on the road up ahead. Then I saw a few more along the ditch so I pulled over.

They were feasting on what looked like a cow leg. So many questions! Did the cow get loose? Did the leg fall off a truck? I didn’t see any cow pastures on this part of the road. Where did it come from? Or was it something else? A wild hog? That would be a pretty big one if so. Vultures are nature’s cleaning crew and they were doing their job.

So many boxes of baby squirrels.

Posted on November 11, 2023 by dinajohnston

We didn’t get much rain in mid-August but it poured the afternoon I needed to get some injured wildlife to a rehabber. This trip I stopped at the emergency vet office and picked up some lost baby squirrels to add to the box of baby squirrels I was taking to Penny (the crazy busy rehabber in south St. Pete). After the vet office I stopped at the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay in Brandon and picked up more baby squirrels, a tiny baby opossum, a juvenile opossum and a juvenile red bellied woodpecker. They all made the trip to Penny’s so they could finish growing up before being released. And yes, that box of squirrels also had the tiny opossum. We put him in the squirrel box to keep warm since it had a warming gel pad under the towels.

A few days later I made a quick trip to the vet office to pick a lost baby squirrel and a pigeon with an injured wing and take them both to the Raptor Center.

The next day I made another trip to take the above from the Raptor Center to Penny in south St. Pete. That little baby opossum was just too cute when Nancy picked him up to put him in the box to make the trip. More baby squirrels and an injured black vulture (my first vulture passenger). A laughing gull also made this trip.

The next week I brought more lost baby squirrels and an opossum to Penny. The tiny bird was an Island canary that was found sick and exhausted. It was banded and Penny was going to try and find the owner. It was either an escapee or was released.

The day after Hurricane Idalia skirted by the Tampa bay area was a busy rescue day. People had brought Nancy baby squirrels that had fallen out of trees the day of the hurricane and a juvenile osprey had fallen off the nest. I picked them up in the morning and took them down to Penny. She took the osprey out of the crate while I was there and checked her out. She didn’t look injured so she should be released as soon as she’s eating and flying.

Later that afternoon I got a request to pick up some more lost critters that had come in from the emergency vet office. I picked up more baby squirrels and the cutest baby duck. I drove them right down to Penny’s.

In early September I got my first turtle passenger. A soft shell turtle had swallowed a fishing hook. I drove it over to Swamp Girl Adventures in Kissimmee, just outside of Orlando. Kim took the turtle and said they shouldn’t have a problem getting that hook out. I have to say that turtle was the stinkiest passenger I have had. It does live in a swamp after all. I hosed out the blue tub and left my windows rolled down for a day and the smell was gone.

Looking for a pink bird

Posted on November 9, 2023 by dinajohnston

I had heard there was a pink bird near the Safety Harbor boardwalk so one late afternoon in September I hopped in the car and headed over. After a quick glance by the boardwalk and not seeing the bird I was looking for I started to check out what else was there. I found the above ibis with a young horseshoe crab in his beak. He didn’t swallow it whole but took it over to the exposed sand and started picking at the insides. I don’t think it was much of a meal.

The water was calm and I could see parts of downtown Tampa far across the bay.

There were a lot of birds out on the sandbar area. Mostly laughing gulls and pelicans but there were a few terns in the mix.

A belted kingfisher flew by.

This was not the pink bird I was looking for but the roseate spoonbill is still pretty. She was feeding with several ibis. The reflections were clear since the water was not moving.

Here is the pink bird I was looking for, an American flamingo. One of the wild ones that got blown up to the Tampa bay area during Hurricane Idalia. She was first seen here just past mid-September so she wasn’t one of the first ones to be seen in the area. She is banded and the only info we have been able to find is that she (or he) was banded in the Yucatan (eastern most part of Mexico). The locals that live in Safety Harbor have named her HarborRita (like a Margarita from the Harbor!). She’s been the most consistent one to see but she’s not there most of the day. She usually shows up early in the morning and is gone by 8:30am and then is sometimes there late in the day.

A few mornings later I stopped by to see if she was there. It was pretty cloudy and I thought that would help since the sun would not be behind her. She was not there this morning and you can barely see Tampa across the bay.

I did find some roseate spoonbills taking a bath.

I took a short walk around the marina and the sun was starting to come out. At this point the spoonbills were preening and starting to settle in for a nap.

Summer mornings in Dunedin

Posted on November 6, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was a stagnant morning in late July. Not even a slight breeze or ripple on the water. I stopped at the pier at Weaver Park to see if I could spot any dolphins but the tide was so low that they would be far out anyway so I didn’t stay long. It was too hot to be out so after my quick walk I headed home.

A few days later it was cloudy when I went out for a walk at the Dunedin marina. There was at least a breeze and a chance of rain.

The tide was low and the water was clear around the pier and I noticed someone must have dumped some fish bones in the water. I’ve never seen this before. The tiny bait fish were picking the bones clean.

A little farther down the pier I could see coral growing on the oyster beds.

The usual great egret was there, trying to catch some tiny fish.

I had heard there were some fun eclectic mailboxes on a few of the streets just off Main street so I took some back roads to get home.

These are just a small sample of some of the ones I saw. All snapped with my phone.

When I got almost home I could see some rain clouds out in the bay. I took a detour and stopped at the Oldsmar pier hoping to see some rain headed our way. I started to walk out on the pier and heard some thunder so I ducked under a picnic shelter and caught the above lightning across the bay. We did get a short storm at home but we are still in severe drought conditions. Through September this is the driest year on record for Pinellas county.

Dragonflies for breakfast

Posted on November 4, 2023 by dinajohnston

I realized I had not posted the baby purple martins from May. I had been keeping an eye on the purple martin house at the Dunedin marina and when I stopped by in mid-May I saw lots of older babies being fed. Above is a male parent bringing a dragonfly to the baby.

Both male and female parents were bringing in food. The babies, almost as big as their parents, were sticking their heads out of the nest holes.

This time Mom brought a dragonfly.

Some of the juveniles were just starting to fly and were landing on another martin’s nest deck. It was constant chaos with parents chasing away someone else’s babies. By early June the nest building was deserted and all was quiet until next spring.

As I was standing in the small parking lot I looked down on the sea wall and could see some other critters watching me. Mallards and great blue herons are common along the rocks in front of the marina.

Looking across the water at Clearwater Beach, it was a picture perfect morning.

An early morning walk in Tarpon Springs

Posted on November 2, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was a hot summer and I was trying to do my short morning walks near water. One morning I drove up to Tarpon Springs and started a quick walk along the bayou at Craig Park. In the winter this bayou will be filled with manatees but on this morning there was nothing in the water but the reflection of the sun.

Bright colors on a nearby building.

The park has many great old crooked trees. Some over 100 years old.

I stopped at nearby Sunset Beach before heading home. The water was crystal clear and it was low tide.

This tiny beach has a lot of trees along the water.

Another stop was nearby Crystal Beach pier. The water isn’t as nice here, mostly grass beds along the shore but it’s still a beautiful view looking at the water or back at the palm trees.

A hot morning walk with the usual critters

Posted on October 30, 2023 by dinajohnston

All of the usual big birds were at Chesnut Park for my morning walk in late June (anhinga, yellow crowned night heron, limpkin).

The wood duck babies were almost fully grown.

Birds were flying overhead (royal tern, osprey, green heron).

Things were blooming in the swamp.

Deer and bunnies were easy to spot.

I don’t often see barred owls here but this one was very visible, taking a nap along the boardwalk.

A cardinal was eating the seed that someone had left on the boardwalk.

The bittern and some limpkins

Posted on October 28, 2023 by dinajohnston

Earlier in the summer I kept stopping by Chesnut Park to see if I could find the baby limpkins that had been spotted there. I kept missing them and I thought this trip would be a bust too. I first saw movement in the reeds along the boardwalk but it was just a green heron.

A little ways down the boardwalk I saw an adult limpkin.

I found them but they were almost fully grown at this point. There were 4 babies and they still had a little fuzz on their heads and were making that “baby is hungry” low screeching. They had just come out of the reeds and were looking around.

Mom headed into the water and found a yummy snail.

The youngest looking baby quickly swam over to her and got a bite.

I stood and watched for a while as they were busy preening and picking up empty snail shells, pretending to find a snack. They were acting like little toddlers, curiously getting into everything.

Mom continued to look for food and she ignored that little blue ball.

As I was watching the limpkins I saw movement from across the water. A least bittern came out from the other side of the reeds. He was still for a few minutes and then stood up several times as if to say “Here I am”. I thought that was a type of mating dance but I didn’t see another one anywhere. It could have been hiding deep in the reeds though.

All of a sudden it was almost noon and time to head home for lunch.

🎵 “Raindrops are falling on my head” 🎵

Posted on October 26, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was mid-July and we were expecting rain. We hadn’t had much in months so I was not holding my breath. It sure looked like rain was coming even though the sun kept peeking out so I went to the Dunedin marina to walk around and see if there were any rainbows or lightning. It started to rain so I made it back to my car.

I drove over to the Safety Harbor fishing pier where I could see pouring rain out in the bay. No rainbows or lightning though, not that I could see from the pier. But the weather had cooled off so it was nice being outside.

There’s a new statue in the park at the fishing pier.

I headed over to the Oldsmar pier, much closer to home and I could still see the rain out in the bay. We got a quick shower at home but not nearly as much as we needed. The ponds in my neighborhood were still almost empty at this point.

Rescue trips in the first half of August

Posted on October 23, 2023 by dinajohnston

The Raptor Center of Tampa Bay put out a request for a volunteer to pick up an injured turtle that someone had brought in to a vet. Thinking it may have been hit by a car. This is my first sad trip. I got to the vet office and they told me it had just passed away. It was probably in bad shape when it was brought it. As I was fighting back the tears they said “We do have an injured duck. Can you take that to a rehabber?” My response was “Of course”

So this cutie made the trip to the Raptor Center all alone. It looked a little scratched up but otherwise in good shape.

This little wide eyed cutie made the trip from the Raptor Center to a rehabber near St. Pete. Paula at Crikey Wildlife Rescue specializes in rehabbing and releasing raccoons and squirrels. She has had the rabies vaccine and can work with older raccoons, although rabies is fairly rare in our area (only 1 case this year and zero last year in Pinellas county).

I had a carload of red shoulder hawks in the back of my SUV on this trip. Two had been brought in on the same day and both had been shot. The third one had an injured wing.

Nancy from the Raptor Center was able to get them x-ray’d to confirm that the 2 had been shot. Above is one of the x-rays. You can see the tiny bullet near the end of his wing. Who does that? Maybe the hawks were stealing chickens from a farmer or backyard? I would hate to think they were just randomly shot but it could happen.

All three were headed to a vet in Nokomis (south of Sarasota), about an hour away from the Raptor Center. The vet works with wildlife and was going to take the bullets out of the 2 and look at the other one with an injured wing. Since they would stay overnight I just dropped them off and someone nearby was bringing them back later.

The vet was 10 minutes from Nokomis beach so I stopped and got out for a few minutes to stretch my legs before heading home (it would be close to 2 hours to get back to my house). It would have been a perfect morning if it wasn’t so hot. I should have brought my swimsuit and gone for a dip.

Heading over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to get back home. Not much traffic this morning (which is rare).

This tiny young squirrel was brought into a vet one morning. I picked him up and headed straight to the rehabber Penny in south St. Pete.

In mid-August we had a bad storm move through the area and the next day there were quite a few baby squirrels that were brought in. Nests or babies falling from trees in the storm. I drove out to the Raptor Center in Brandon and picked up a large box of squirrels. All different ages and they were huddled together for warmth. They were all going to Penny in south St. Pete to grow up and eventually get released.

A crow with an injured wing also made the trip. He yelled the entire trip.

I had heard there was a rare Egyptian goose that had showed up in the area near where Penny lives. Since I was going to be down there I threw my camera in the car and after dropping off the squirrels and crow I headed to the nearby lake. He was very easy to find. I pulled over and snapped a couple of shots before heading home. This was the first time I have heard of them being in Pinellas county. They are populated all over south Florida, especially in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. I couldn’t find any definite information on whether they were released on purpose or escapees from a zoo. They have been sighted in Florida since the 80’s. They are invasive like the muscovy ducks and I’m sure the neighbors hope it doesn’t have a mate.

Dina's Wildlife Adventures

Author Archives: dinajohnston