A ride around the neighborhood

On January 18, 2025January 8, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I went for a bike ride in the neighborhood the day before Hurricane Milton came. A lot of people had evacuated the area and there wasn’t a lot of traffic early in the morning. The golf course behind our house was closed so I started out there.

Mushrooms were growing everywhere from all of the recent rain.

The ponds along the golf course behind our homes were already full and we were due to get a ton of rain when Milton hit. I noticed the neighbor down the street had a hurricane flag out.

A great egret and female anhinga down the street.

This goldenrain tree was blooming.

On the other side of the neighborhood I found some fun birds in a ditch. The water was high so wood storks, a snowy egret and a spoonbill were feeding along the ditch.

These ladies gave me a quick glance as I slowed down to snap the above.

The sun came out for a short while as I was making my way home. This pond down the street from our house was full of egrets and snowy egrets.

A spin around the neighborhood.

On May 23, 2024May 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

It was almost the end of March and I hadn’t been out for a spin around the neighborhood in a while so I hopped on my bike after lunch and took off. The first pond I stopped at had a little alligator floating in the middle.

After taking the picture of the alligator I noticed a pair of anhingas down along the pond. Both the female (with the brown neck) and the male (all black) where fanning out their wings to dry out so they must have been feeding here. I could almost imagine she was smiling at me.

There was a soft shell turtle sunning himself on the other side of the pond.

The next pond I stopped at had the usual birds. A great blue heron taking a break and a little blue heron creeping along the shoreline.

Butterflies were out at the utility field.

The bottlebrush trees were blooming all over the neighborhood. They attract hummingbirds but I didn’t see any this morning. I stopped at a few of them and waited for a while but all I saw were bees. It might have been a little early for hummingbirds to come through but I had heard there were some sighted nearby.

I stopped by the eagle’s nest when I saw the eagle sitting up on the tower. Mom was still hanging around even though she lost her mate and babies in late January (I wrote about what happened in this post). It looked like she had a stick in her talon. She flew to the nest and sat up there for a while. It was really too late for her to re-nest again even though she had a new boyfriend.

The boyfriend was sitting on top of the next tower. He still has some brown in his head. He’s been hanging around for a while. Now it’s mid-May and they are both gone and I will have to wait until late September or October to see if they come back.

A March bike ride

On May 16, 2024May 8, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

I was out in the northern tip of the Pinellas Trail for a bike ride in early March. I saw a bald eagle sitting on the first utility tower I passed. Then a few towers down there were 2 sitting on a nest. I didn’t see any babies here. I have recently heard they didn’t have any this year. The eagle watchers didn’t see any signs of any babies so no one is sure what happened.

The eastern meadowlarks were out being visible this morning. One was on the cow pasture fence and several were in the brush along the trail.

There were a lot of sandhill cranes but it was too early for babies.

Why did the crane cross the road??? I’m glad I stopped cause he just walked right in front of me.

This is a castor oil plant. It was all along the trail. It’s an invasive plant so I wonder why it’s here.

Other things growing along the trail.

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.

A productive bike ride in the neighborhood

On December 9, 2023December 9, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I was heading out of my street on my bike one morning when I saw a black bellied whistling duck sitting on the side of the lake across the street from our home. This was the first time I’ve seen one in our neighborhood.

I pedaled around to the big open utility field and stopped to take some shots of the above deer. I don’t see bucks often so I had to stop and get a shot of him even if it was across the field.

Yes, more turkey shots. I was cruising around and saw some turkeys up on a roof. They must have had a pretty good view from up there. Eventually they started coming down and pecking around in the grass.

I ran into some nanday parakeets that were feeding on someone’s feeder.

My 2nd neighborhood fawn sighting. This Mom only had 1 baby. They crossed the street and went behind someone’s house that backed up to some woods.

I was waiting at a stop sign for traffic to move (but really just taking a rest) and heard a black bellied whistling duck. I looked over and there were 2 sitting under a tree near the main road into the neighborhood. I started snapping some shots and realized they had babies with them. There was a pond nearby but they were not that close to it.

They headed down into the ditch and made their way towards the pond. Of course they went to the pond that had houses around them so I lost sight of them. I didn’t want to walk into someone’s backyard (as tempting as that was). These were taken across the street and heavily cropped. Those babies stayed close to Mom. A third whistler showed up as they were heading to the pond. I wonder if it was the same one that was in the lake across from our house. I didn’t see it there again.

Heading back home I ran into more turkeys on the other side of the neighborhood.

A busy morning on my bike

On November 18, 2023November 12, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

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.

A park and a bike ride

On August 26, 2023August 17, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

In late April I made a quick stop at Chesnut Park to see if there were any migrating birds hanging around. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of warblers come through here during migration but the only thing I found was the usual titmouse. They come really close because people feed them here. They come down close to the boardwalk to see if you have snacks. Once they realize you aren’t carrying they head back up to the tops of the trees.

The squirrels are also being fed here so they check you out as well.

I came home and it was still to early for lunch so I hopped on my bike and went for a quick pedal around the neighborhood. The first thing I saw was a bunny. A brown thrasher flew in front of me as I was taking a picture of the bunny. Was he posing for me?

I found a limpkin in the pond down the street from our house in the same spot the limpkin babies were last year. The water was much lower this year and at first I only saw the adult. He was calling to another limpkin that was farther down the creek.

I left my bike in the bushes and followed the creek along the golf course (no one was playing at the time) and saw another adult limpkin far in the woods. I could just barely make out a baby in the sticks. They stayed pretty hidden and eventually worked their way down behind the houses so I couldn’t follow them any farther. I’m assuming they were farther back since the water was a little higher there.

And, a random alligator that I saw in the neighborhood. This was taken with my 300mm lens and cropped so he was pretty far away.

A bike ride through the neighborhood

On August 3, 2023July 18, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

In mid-April I headed out for a quick bike ride around the neighborhood. I wasn’t expecting to find much but I still put my camera in my backpack. As soon as I got down the street I saw the above swallow tailed kite flying around in circles and followed him farther down the street to the utility field. I was thinking he was going to head past the trees and disappear but I stopped and pulled my camera out and waited anyway. He did come back around and for once I was ready. He was still far away but I was able to get one shot of him eating something while flying, assuming it’s a dragonfly.

The swallow tailed kite flew away and as I was putting my camera back in the backpack I saw something fly into the bushes out of the corner of my eye. It was an eastern kingbird. A first sighting in my neighborhood. He flew over to the sign and posed for a while.

I stopped by the only osprey nest in the neighborhood that’s actually in a tree. There are tons of them here but the rest are on a platform or utility pole. I still haven’t seen a baby in this nest but it’s up high and they could be sleeping.

Other usual neighborhood birds include a yellow crowned night heron, an anhinga sunning himself and a juvenile little blue heron that is just starting to turn blue.

I saw an adult eagle flying from the other end of the neighborhood and land on a utility tower with another eagle.

Of course the tower was right into the sun but I could see them out in the field sitting on the tower. I’m thinking this is the other couple that has a nest farther down the field.

Of course a bike ride wouldn’t be complete without an alligator sighting or several. This was a tiny one sitting on the bank of a small pond, almost blending in.

More from my early April bike ride

On June 26, 2023June 17, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals5 Comments

Pedaling by the stables on the bike trail.

I found a pair of kildeer far out in the cow pasture.

A Savannah sparrow posed for me on the fence.

I spotted some turkeys on the far side of the cow pasture.

Critters taking a nap along the pond (these were both cropped up).

This is the first time I have seen a snapping turtle on this trail.

My first ever sighting of a Sherman’s fox squirrel. They are only found in Florida and south Georgia. I have heard of sightings of them farther north of Tampa and had heard there were some seen along this trail but I hadn’t seen them until this morning. There were 2 and they stayed far on the other side of the cow pasture so these are heavily cropped. They are bigger than the abundant gray squirrels we have in our backyard.

A red shoulder hawk had something furry in his talons and when I stopped to get my camera out he turned around to hide his prey. I quickly snapped the above and then left him to his meal.

Chilly bike ride

On May 4, 2023April 29, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals5 Comments

It was a little chilly in early March (meaning 60 degrees) and I decided to bundle up and go out for a bike ride on my favorite cow pasture trail. There were a few cows near the trail but the almost grown calves were far back.

This time the turkeys were fairly close to the fence. Tom was really showing off for the ladies. The ladies were ignoring him.

A kildeer was cruising along one of the ponds.

This was an interesting grasshopper. Not the usual lubber but I’m not sure what kind.

Blooming along the trail.

I found a big invasive rosary pea plant near the beginning of the trail. Most of the pods had opened up and revealed the bright red seeds. These seeds are highly toxic to humans and many domestic animals but birds can eat them without any problems. I’ve read that one seed can kill a horse or cow and this plant was right along the cow pasture with a horse barn on the other side. I’m surprised they haven’t pulled this out.