No babies yet.

On September 2, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

It was the end of May and I was out at the Roosevelt Wetlands looking for black necked stilts. I found a few of them here. They are known to nest here in the summer and I was hoping to see some babies but it was a little early for that. There were several nests on the other side of of the lake but none up close to the trail even though there were a lot of stilts along the trail.

There were already older baby moorhens. The juveniles are all gray before they get their black adult feathers.

I thought the above was a boat tailed grackle couple flirting but since the females are all brown I think it was 2 males fighting over territory. Or, both showing off for a nearby female.

A juvenile little blue heron was shedding his white baby feathers for his adult blue feathers. They are really pretty when they have mixed colors like this.

I stopped by Folly Farm on my way home to check on the baby red shoulder hawk. The baby was fully grown and was still hanging around the tall palm tree that the nest was in. I was hoping he would fly off while I was there but after an hour I was ready to head home.

A squirrel was sitting a few branches over from the young hawk. Either he didn’t see the hawk sitting nearby or he was tempting fate.

Another butterfly shot.

A young brown thrasher was hopping around in the bushes.

Things blooming in the butterfly garden.

I otter get out here more often.

On September 18, 2023April 7, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I made another trip to the Roosevelt Wetlands in mid-May. The summer heat had set in but there was still a slight breeze early in the morning. I snapped a few small critters right when I got out on the trail in case I didn’t see much of anything else.

I think this is a type of partridge pea plant. There was a lot of this growing on trail.

There were a few black necked stilts in the pond and I meant to get back there later in the summer to look for baby ones but I never made it back during baby season.

The juvenile little blue heron was digging deep to get food. He was molting into his blue adult feathers and the pattern was really pretty.

What was that head popping up in the water? It was an otter. I hadn’t seen an otter out in the wild since January 2022. There were two of them and they were moving fast across the pond. I couldn’t keep up with them.

I lost sight of them and then a few minutes later I saw them crossing the trail and diving into the other side of the pond. They disappeared quickly again and I saw them pop up on the other side of the pond and head into the reeds.

I feel like I’m never in the right place at the right time but these two kildeer walked right in front of me on the trail and started getting frisky. Another reason to get back here in the summer to see kildeer babies and I missed this one as well.

Across the pond there were two moorhens fighting.

That juvenile osprey was still on the nest. She looked up from her snack and gave me the “don’t come near me and steal my fish” stare.

Even though it was already crazy hot it was a nice morning to be out on the trail. There was quite a bit of action for such a tiny reserve.

A 4 stop road trip morning

On June 15, 2023June 13, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

It was an early morning in April and I was looking for a new bird. A great-tailed grackle had been spotting in St. Pete somewhere in the North Shore Park area.

I found this guy but it was a boat-tailed grackle. The only real difference between the two are the color of the eyes. The boat-tailed has black eyes and the great-tailed has yellow eyes. Their call is also different.

There he was, right in the parking lot near the pool. Those bright yellow eyes gave him away. He was right in the area where people had been spotting him. I haven’t heard of one being in the Tampa Bay area before. They are found on the western part of the country so he was far off course.

Meanwhile, this Cooper’s hawk was there as well, looking at me like I was crazy.

I noticed the trees were blooming.

I’m not sure if squirrels can eat these big balls hanging from the palm tree but this one seem to be hiding in them.

I made a quick stop at nearby Crescent Lake Park to see if the white pelicans were still hanging around the lake. I only saw 2 of them on this visit. I don’t know if the other ones were somewhere else in the park or if they had already headed north for the summer.

Another quick stop on the way home and I found some black-necked stilts and yellowlegs. They were all hanging out along the ditches near the waste plant. It was still a little early for stilt babies.

My final stop of the morning (but really only a quick drive through) was of the peacock neighborhood. There’s a neighborhood in Clearwater that has tons of wild peacocks roaming the yards. I had recently heard there was an all white one there so I drove through looking for it. I found it but more on that later.

Wide open space at Myakka State Park

On November 12, 2020October 21, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants2 Comments

One of the few animals I saw at Myakka River State Park was a deer near the big lake. She was alone and hiding in the shadow.

Closer to the water I could see some black bellied whistling ducks and black necked stilts.

A crow guarding the parking lot.

Myakka Park, just south of Sarasota, is known for having huge gators. And a lot of them although not as many as the Everglades. Timing is everything to see the big ones. They usually come out to sun themselves late in the afternoon. If it’s really hot, they’ll stay in the water most of the day. I was there early in the morning and only saw a few small ones. There is an area in the park that is off limits that has 100’s of them. The “Deep hole” is a 4 mile round trip hike out to where they are hidden but you have to have a permit to hike out there. The rangers give out 30 permits a day and I heard they are all snatched up in the first hour. I keep saying I want to get down there in the winter and hike out the hole but keep putting it off. I think this winter might be the time.

The sun was just coming up over the trees when I headed out on one trail.

This is a huge park with a lot of wide open spaces. I was out on a rare Monday off so there was hardly anyone there.

A pano with my phone of a dried up lake.

Pink is always in

On October 26, 2019October 11, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment

I found some old pictures that I had taken many years ago of my first encounter with roseate spoonbills. These were taken in 2009 with my first DSLR camera, a Nikon D60. I was out walking around at Lake Seminole Park and saw these guys walking along the lake. The water was low and I was able to hike out near the edge and stood in the muck watching these guys feed for at least an hour. I was using my old Sigma 150mm – 500mm lens so they were still pretty far out. Every once in a while they would look up at me but then continue to feed. I remember this morning well.

Some of the friends nearby were mallards and a black neck stilt.

I look over to my left and this tri colored heron was watching me like I was crazy.

A walk after work in early July.

On July 28, 2014July 29, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

Green heron on the shoreline of the lake.

I’m assuming this cardinal can see himself in the window? He kept banging on it. Maybe he could see food inside.

Tricolored heron posing for me.

A very young grackle.

A red winged blackbird.

The black neck stilt couple were still there.

So were the babies. All three were there and just a little bit bigger than the few weeks before I saw them. They were pretty far out in the reeds.

Baby duck taking a bath.

Drying off with his siblings close by.

I saw 4 baby ducks all together without any parent around. They stayed pretty close to each other. They climbed up on the bank and settled in for the night. Hopefully, a parent found them later.