A busy morning on my bike

Posted on November 18, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was mid-July and I still hadn’t seen the baby turkeys this summer. I had heard they were around from neighbors but I kept missing them. I went out for a bike ride one morning and there they were. Crossing the street and almost grown. I knew they would be in the woods in a second so I hopped off my bike and snapped the above.

As I passed them by I was able to get a quick shot before they went under the wooden fence and disappeared into the woods. They were still in that “cute” stage.

As I got around to the open utility field I saw a deer couple. The male looked young with those tiny antlers.

I saw another turkey family, all grown ups, far off on the other side of the field. They were heading behind someone’s house. When I got around to the other street they were feeding in front of a home, scratching around for bugs.

I stopped by the pond behind the golf center and found some baby mallards on the other side of the pond. I rarely see baby ducks here. In our old neighborhood in Tampa there were always a ton of babies almost all year round, both mallards and muscovy.

I also found some baby moorhens.

A great egret flies by as I was taking pictures of the moorhens.

Across the golf course I could see a doe running into the cover. I’m thinking she looked pregnant.

Flowers blooming around the neighborhood.

New birds in the muck

Posted on September 9, 2023 by dinajohnston

Roosevelt Wetlands is a small reserve right next to the waste plant. It has a great trail that runs across the lake and is usually quiet. Just don’t go when the wind is blowing towards the reserve. I got there pretty early and first saw 2 skimmers skimming along the lake.

It looks like this moorhen bit off part of a lily pad.

A kildeer flew close by.

Some wintering birds were still there in early May. A sora rail and a spotted sandpiper.

Cute duck family.

A lesser yellowlegs was creeping around in the muck.

Two new birds in one shot. A white rumped sandpiper on the left and a semipalmated sandpiper on the right. These aren’t super rare birds for this area but for some reason I kept missing them. They were also creeping around in the muck.

A least sandpiper was also with the new birds. I had not seen one of these since 2012.

Another shot of the white rumped sandpiper.

A little sandpiper party.

Another shot of the semipalmated sandpiper.

I finally saw the gull billed tern. He flew by really fast and this was the only shot I could get of him. He circled around the pond and then left. He isn’t an exciting bird but a new one for me.

The only new bird I didn’t see that was sighted there before was a stilt sandpiper. Maybe next time.

The rookery was hopping in late March

Posted on June 3, 2023 by dinajohnston

I made a road trip back to the bird rookery in north Tampa in late March. The noise was so loud from all of the baby birds screaming to be feed. The little spoil island in the pond was full of babies. Although this great egret above looks like he’s still flirting.

There were baby egrets from just a few days old to several weeks old.

The tricolored herons were still sitting on eggs.

This Mom was shading her baby wood storks from the sun.

This was the youngest wood stork baby I could see and it had a tiny fish in his beak.

This Mom had no rest with all of these babies.

It looks like the older baby got the big fish this time. It took him a while to get it down.

Great egrets were still bringing sticks back to the nests.

The baby muscovy ducks I had seen here weeks ago were almost grown now.

So many baby ducks

Posted on May 31, 2022 by dinajohnston

Bees took over this owl nest box at Largo Nature Preserve. That’s a lot of bees! I don’t think they’ll stay there forever. I think they eventually move on but will they leave a mess behind?

Nanday parakeets high up in a tree. Maybe they are looking for a place to nest?

A young spoonbill taking a break from feeding along the channel.

It’s hard to believe it’s already the end of May. These were taken in mid-April and were the first baby moorhens I’ve seen this year. You know summer is here when the ponds fill up with these babies.

The ponds are full of water hyacinth.

The baby mallards are just too cute to not stop and take a ton of pictures.

Largo Nature Preserve in early April

Posted on May 12, 2022 by dinajohnston

It’s always fun to see baby mallards (although with that yellow beak on the Mom, these may be mottled ducks). There were two families at Largo Nature Preserve in early April. One was feeding in the water and the other was walking around on the walking path. They eventually made it down to the water.

The two northern shovelers were still there. They are probably up north for the summer by now.

Looking up in the utility tower I saw a young eagle. I often see adult eagles sitting here but today it was a younger one. Maybe 4 years old? They don’t get a full white head until their 5th year. This one still had a little brown on his. Maybe he was born in the area.

While watching the eagle, a Canadian goose flies by. They hang out on the golf course along the park so it’s not a surprise.

Across the canal a cattle egret had a dragonfly in his beak.

Brown thrashers are common here. This one was singing away.

Night herons can usually be found napping along the boardwalk.

A monk parakeet coming down to the ground to get a snack.

Almost grown duckies

Posted on September 14, 2021 by dinajohnston

I went out for a quick walk around the neighborhood pond early one morning before work in July. There wasn’t many ducks in the pond and I was thinking “Where did they go?” when I turned around and saw Blondie walking across the street with her babies and heading for the pond.

I was excited to see all 6 of her babies were doing well and were almost grown up. They hopped in the pond and swam around looking for food and preening.

I also saw another creme colored duck that was a little darker. I have to wonder if she’s one of Blondie’s babies from previous years.

Grabbing my camera

Posted on September 11, 2021 by dinajohnston

I was peeking out the bedroom window to see if it was raining and saw this green heron hop up on the dock with a fish. I ran and grabbed my camera and snapped these through the window. I knew if I walked outside he would get spooked and fly off.

A few days later I saw a butt sticking up and was able to catch this little blue heron eating a crab off the dock.It seems like there’s lots of good seafood in our channel. I should be charging them a la carte.

Of course when I see baby ducks heading down the channel I grab my camera and run outside. This family was in front of our dock in late July. The babies were trying to eat the mangrove leaf.

As I was sitting at my desk in the bedroom working, I was watching this slug cruising across the pane. I grabbed my camera and took this wih my macro lens. Cool to see the other side.

More little quackers

Posted on September 4, 2021 by dinajohnston

I’m a sucker for baby ducks, even annoying muscovy ducks. I came home from running errands in late July and saw a family in the neighborhood pond so I ran home and got my camera. They were hanging around the sidewalk when I got back so I plopped down and watched them running around for a few minutes.

They eventually wandered over to the bushes so I said goodbye and left.

This one is an older juvenile. He was following me around. He has what is called “angel wings” from poor nutrition. Some of his wings grew outwards. Even too many carbs is bad for the ducks. He probably grew up with one of the neighbors feeding him only bread. He should be eating bugs and getting protein. One other duck had it on one side. They can’t fly with their wings like this and it can’t be fixed at their age. It will be interesting to see how long he’s at our pond, although he could move on to other ponds in the area as well.

Blondie and her babies

Posted on August 7, 2021 by dinajohnston

My favorite neighborhood duck came by our dock for a visit in mid-June. I call her Blondie (thinking she is a light colored hybrid mallard) and she been hanging around the neighborhood for several years. I saw her with the babies one afternoon and ran out to the dock with my camera.

Her babies were so cute, swimming around our dock. I wonder if the lighter color ones will keep their creme color or turn dark brown once they grow up. The all yellow muscovy babies turn black once they grow up but I’m not sure if these mallard will. There’s a light brown colored duck that hangs out in a neighborhood pond that could be one of Blondie’s grown babies.

I know they were looking for a handout since some of the neighbors feed them but I wasn’t going to start that.

It was fun watching the babies swim around with Mom.

Come back soon!

Spring migration was a bust

Posted on June 21, 2021 by dinajohnston

McGough Park in Largo is another spring migration hot spot so I stopped there in late April but all I got was turtles. After walking around for an hour and seeing very few birds I left and headed to Largo Nature Preserve.

Not many migrating birds here either but lots of other stuff. I thought the bottom shot was just a weird looking butterfly but then realized it was two butterflies. Not sure if they were mating or feeding on something but they stayed there for a while.

I caught this osprey cruising by me with a really big stick heading to a nest. What is that saying? “Speak softely and carry a big stick”. This is more like “Fly high and carry a big stick”.

A tricolored heron creeping around in the muck.

A big family and almost grown babies in the bottom shot.

This was the first time I’ve seen black bellied whistiling ducks here, much less any where in Pinellas county so I was surprised. They were on the golf course across the canal.

This lone spoonbill was busy feeding and wandering around looking for the best spot.

As I was walking the path something blue whizzed by. Wait, what was that? Finally, a migrating bird. It was a blue grosbeak and when I cropped this shot up I realized there was an immature orchard oriole with him (the yellow one on the right). The oriole took off and I wasn’t able to find him again.

The blue grosbeak had a lady friend with him (the brown one on the top) and they stayed in the area for a few minutes before taking off across the park.