A walk along the water

On February 9, 2026March 6, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights3 Comments

In early November Brett and I went for a walk along the waterfront near downtown St. Pete.

The old historic pink hotel (Vinoy) looked pretty against the blue sky as we passed by. Built in 1929, the hotel was taken over by the Army during WW2 and was used for training. It has been said that it is haunted.

Walking past the boats at the municipal marina.

As we walked out along the pier this sailboat came close to us. It swerved at the last minute.

Pelicans were diving along the pier.

The old pier pilings are still in the water and the pelicans like to sit on them. The inverted pyramid building and the pier were torn down in 2015 and the new pier was completed in 2020. You can read my post about the old and new pier here.

Watching the pelicans diving under the pier. The bait fish are plentiful under the pier so the pelicans are constantly diving around it.

Taking a break after climbing the back stairs of the pier building.

The view of St. Pete from the top floor.

Bees buzzing on the goldenrod that was blooming along the pier.

The orchid trees in the parking area were in full bloom.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) at Image-In-Ing.

Flying critters in November

On February 8, 2025February 1, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I had just gotten out of my car for a walk when I heard the monk parakeets screaming towards me. I grabbed my camera out of the back and started shooting as they landed in the trees in front of me. Unfortunately it was right into the sun. Monk parakeets are smaller than the nanday parakeets and they don’t have the black heads. Both types are not native to Florida and there are tons of them here.

They were bouncing and moving around across the trees and I was able to catch a few shots with the sun behind me while they were feeding.

After a few minutes they all took off across the water.

After my walk along the waterfront at the Safety Harbor fishing pier I stopped at Folly Farms to see what was flying around. Even though it was mid-November it was still pretty warm and there were lots of little critters buzzing around.

An afternoon bike ride

On January 27, 2024January 17, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

In late October I went out for a quick bike ride around the neighborhood. We had a few cooler days but it was mostly still in the 80’s in the afternoons. I found a small promise of cooler weather ahead in these few red leaves.

I saw this yellow blooming plant all over the utility field. I looked it up and it’s rattlebox (also known as rattleweed, cat’s bell and showy crotalaria). It’s not a native plant and is invasive. It blooms in the fall here.

The little critters love the flowers.

The seed pods are toxic once they dry out.

This looks like bladderpod (or bagpod) but I didn’t see any orange flowering so I’m not sure. The pods are most likely toxic as well.

An Eastern phoebe was sitting on a bottlebrush tree.

Little critters along my ride.

I only saw this tiny gator on my ride. There are bigger ones here but they must have been hiding.

I saw a red shoulder hawk sitting on a light post near some woods and stopped to get a shot but he took off right as I started to snap. He flew into a tree and I walked over to see if I could find him and realized he was with a friend. It was that time of the year where all of the raptors were mating up. I wondered if this couple nested in this small stretch of woods but it would be hard to find them in there.

Sunny and stormy in the same morning.

On November 16, 2023November 12, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants7 Comments

I was out not very early one morning this summer and headed to Safety Harbor. I first stopped by the fishing pier hoping to see manatees. They were dredging the boat channel next to the pier and it must have scared away the manatees. I didn’t see any here while they were dredging.

I caught this anhinga catching some fish. Above were taken right into the sun.

Then she came around to the other side of the pier and caught what looked like a needlefish. After flipping it around a few times she swallowed it quickly.

Another sighting of a spotted eagle ray. It’s hard to get a good shot of them. They are so big and swim by really quickly, just under the surface.

I made a stop at nearby Folly Farms and was able to find a few tiny flying things in the butterfly garden. There were a lot of monarchs and bees but not much else.

Dark clouds had moved in so I went back over to the fishing pier before heading home. There was a great storm out in the bay right in front of the pier but no lightning. That rain did not make it over to my house. Ugh.

Standing out in the field

On October 9, 2023April 9, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants, Tampa bay sights5 Comments

I found a new sunflower farm closer to my home (still almost an hour away though). Up in Spring Hill, an hour north of Tampa, Jimmy MC’s farm has U-pick sunflowers during the spring. I headed up there on the final weekend of the season almost at the end of May. This is not a big farm with activities for little kids. This is just a farm that you can go and pick your own sunflowers. It’s free to get in and $5 for two handfuls of sunflowers. I parked near the barn and walked out to the sunflower field.

They do have a picturesque tub that you can climb in and take pictures.

It was the last weekend of their season but the field was still full of sunflowers. It was hard deciding which ones to pick. So many! I looked for new buds that weren’t drooping yet and covered in bees. I didn’t want to disturb the much needed honey bees.

I was inspecting each one that I was thinking of picking and found this green spider on the back of one. I didn’t want to take him home (last year I brought home a small creme colored spider and put him in the backyard).

They had a lot of cows next to the sunflower field and I was envious of the ones in the back going for a swim. It was a hot morning. Their pond had really shrunk from the drought. Once most of the good flowers were picked they let the cows in the field and eat the remaining sunflowers.

As I walked back to my car I saw this sandhill crane family in the grassy parking area. I had my camera in the car so I pulled it out and snapped a few shots of them feeding. Junior was almost fully grown but still getting food from his parents.

I loved seeing the windmill out in the cow pasture so I stopped and snapped the above with my phone.

A small part of my stash that I brought home.

A spring morning in late March

On June 12, 2023April 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals, flowers and plants5 Comments

I don’t remember ever seeing this green caterpillar. I found it in the butterfly garden at Folly Farms in Safety Harbor in late March. I usually only see monarch or gulf fritillary caterpillars. I had to look through tons of green caterpillar pictures to find it. This is a orange barred sulphur butterfly. I do see them here but have never seen the caterpillar.

So many little things flying around late in March. It had already been warm for a while so everything was blooming and the garden was full of butterflies, bees and other little critters.

There wasn’t many birds around though. A dove and a few bluebirds were all I could find on this morning.

I caught a swallow tail kite diving down behind the trees.

This was interesting. They have installed a wind phone at the farm. Originated in Japan, the phone is not connected but allows a one way conversation with deceased love ones. There’s a chalk board and you can leave notes. I did pick up the phone to make sure there wasn’t a dial tone (or maybe someone else on the other end?).

Stopping to smell the flowers

On November 10, 2022October 14, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants, Tampa bay sights10 Comments

I had been having shoulder pain off and on through the summer but by early September it had really been bothering me. I haven’t been using my heavy camera much so I went for walk near the Safety Harbor pier with only my phone.

The fountain in front of the marina had been vandalized but was recently fixed. They caught the kids who did it.

Flowers around the fountain. I’m so use to looking at birds from far away so it’s harder for me to find things close up to take pictures of. There’s so much out there, especially near the water.

Looking for a breeze

On November 3, 2022September 27, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights4 Comments

It was a perfect day to head down to St. Pete for a walk and hopefully catch a breeze in mid-August. My first stop was Crescent Lake Park. I was hoping to see hummingbirds at the big firebush but all I got was bees.

I happen to look over near the playground and saw this squirrel trying really hard to get in the unattended bag. A lady saw what was happening and ran over. She had donuts in her bag. I don’t blame the squirrel for trying to get those.

I stumbled on an outdoor dog obedience training class. Since I had my longer lens I was able to watch from pretty far away. All of the dogs seemed pretty chilled.

I left the park and headed over to the yacht basin near downtown for a quick walk before it got crazy hot.

The butterfly garden

On October 22, 2022October 1, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants3 Comments

In early September I went for a walk at Wall Springs Park near Tarpon Springs. I found some mallards swimming around the natural springs area but not many other birds.

The small butterfly garden that’s near the playground was in full bloom, almost overgrown from the summer rains. I keep saying there are less and less butterflies around but I did manage to find a few flying around the bright colored blooms.

“I’m walking on sunshine, yeah!”

On June 30, 2022March 22, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants11 Comments

There’s something magical about standing in the middle of sunflowers.

There were all types of sunflowers here at Sweetfield Farms in early May. Some had yellow faces and some had black faces. Some had big faces and small petals and some had small faces with long yellow petals. I grabbed a pair of clippers and went out to pick a bunch to take home but it was tough to decide which ones to pick. I ended up with a bunch of different ones.

Most of the faces had bees on them but when you clipped them the bees flew off. If you are really afraid of the bees, you can buy the ones in the barn that are already picked. Either way they were $2 a stem. I really didn’t feel like there were a lot of bees swarming around me though. There are plenty without bees as well.