A 3 park morning

On March 19, 2025April 10, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights7 Comments

It was a 3 park morning in early December but all were in Tarpon Springs. I first started out with a walk at the most northern park, Fred Howard Park and Beach. I drove through the park and parked my car just outside the causeway to the little beach area. This was as far as I got. It was all fenced up to get out to the beach while they were still trying to clean up from the hurricanes in late September and early October. The flooding left tons of debris in the sand so they were sifting through to make sure no one gets injured when they open it back up and the parking lot was a big sand mound so they had to get that cleared. (It did open a week after I had made this trip).

As I walked around the park area I noticed most of the trees near the shoreline had their tops broken off.

Vultures were watching me walk around.

My next park was Sunset Beach Park just 5 minutes south of Howard Park. It had already been cleaned up and had just opened up to the public a few days before. I found a small flock of skimmers in the muck when I got out of my car.

The tide was super low this morning. The above were taken on the backside of the beach area.

Zooming in I could see the beach area of Howard Park just north of where I was. This was looking on the side of the island that is covered in boulders. The tide was so low I probably could have walked across the muck to get there.

Zooming in even more I could see great egrets dotting the exposed sand, picking off the exposed sea creatures for a snack.

A great blue heron flies close by.

My last stop on the way home was Craig Park just south of the main tourist area of Tarpon Springs. It’s a small park but has beautiful old trees with branches that touch the ground. It looked like most of the trees here did ok with the hurricanes but this whole park was underwater.

The main attraction here in the winter is the chance to see some manatees. There’s a natural spring here that is warmer than the gulf water and the manatees come into the bayou when it gets really cold. There were at least 10 the morning I was there but since the tide was so low they were huddle in the middle and farther away from the sidewalk. I was able to catch a few on video with their snouts coming up for air.

Early morning with the shorebirds

On August 31, 2024August 20, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

The view walking to the north tip of the beach at Fort Desoto Park. There’s a lagoon on the right and the gulf is far to the left.

Black skimmers were skimming for breakfast along the gulf.

There were rare red knots out on the beach. We only see them briefly when they are making their migration trip from the artic to the southern tip of South America.

A ring billed gull strutting along the beach.

Lots of shorebirds sleeping. These are willets and dowitchers.

I don’t often see dunlins in their breeding feathers. I seem them mostly in the winter when they are a drab creme color. There were a few in their brown and black feathers.

Nicknamed “mermaid necklaces” the above is an egg casing for whelk shells. The female created this casing as she lays her eggs in it. The eggs hatch and turn into shells and the casing dries up and ends up on beaches during storms.

Bonnie was standing out in the middle of the lagoon and the water only came up to her knees. It’s usually pretty shallow here. We were out trying to get pictures of the reddish egret that was feeding in the lagoon. I’m always a little nervous getting that deep in the water with my camera. One bad step in a hole and I could go down with my camera. I think I was only ankle deep when I shot this.

Sun coming up on Outback Key.

On February 12, 2024April 19, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I was out at Fort Desoto looking for the white pelicans early one morning. The sun was just coming up over the trees and I had walked about 15 minutes out on Outback Key. For once I was the first one out on the north spit.

I could see a blast off of shorebirds far out where the pelicans were hanging out.

Dunlins and dowitchers were napping all huddled together.

The skimmers were taking off from a far away spit and landing right in front of me.

It’s hard not to stop and take a few pictures of the juvenile reddish egret when he’s dancing right in front of me. He was showing off, trying to take everyone’s attention away from the white pelicans.

Later as I was heading back to the beach area I found this red breasted merganser swimming in a shallow area on the inside of Outback Key. These ducks dive for their food but this lady was skimming along the surface looking for stuff to eat.

A snowy egret walked up and wanted to have some of whatever the merganser was eating.

The merganser was trying to chase the egret away but the egret wasn’t leaving.

Finally the merganser snapped at the egret and the egret moved farther away.

Meanwhile in the same area this tricolored heron was popping back bait fish like they were popcorn shrimp.

This was one of those perfect mornings out. The sun was out, the weather was cool and the white pelicans made an appearance in full force. More to come on them.

Looking for white pelicans

On January 22, 2024April 15, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was getting towards the end of October and I had heard there were white pelicans at Fort Desoto. They come here to spend some time in the winter, feeding in the water around the park. It’s hit or miss whether they will be visible while they visit. Some days they are floating in the main lagoon at the north beach and some days they hide behind the spoil islands. I was driving in right before they open at 7am and made my usual pause on the bridge to snap the above with my phone since no one was behind me.

I made a quick stop at the east beach turnaround to snap the above with my camera. This is the first time I’ve seen the lights on the bridge.

After snapping the bridge I headed to the north beach tip. I saw a few white pelicans way out on a sandbar. The tide was super low this morning and it was a long walk to the tip of Outback Key. There were only a handful of the white pelicans here this morning where there had been hundreds the day before. Where were they all hiding? I hung out for a while hoping a few more would show up but eventually I started making my way back to the main beach.

Something was causing the shorebirds to all take flight. Some of the skimmers landed right in front of me.

I’m not sure what this great egret was eating. It looked pink. After flipping it around a few times he swallowed it whole.

It was easy to spot the lesser black back gull among the smaller shorebirds. He was so much bigger and really stood out.

It was hard to ignore the reddish egret dancing around looking for tiny fish. Especially when they do it right in front of you.

The piping plovers were trying to nap so I snuck around them.

After leaving the beach area and taking a quick walk on the pier I headed back to the beach one more time before heading home. The tide was out even farther and the ripples in the sand led the way to the tip of Outback Key.

I could see some type of barge or boat across from Shell Key.

Now there were even less white pelicans hanging out with the shorebirds. I guess this means another trip down while they are still in the area. More to come on my next trip.

More from the skimmer colony

On September 3, 2022August 24, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

After the feeding frenzy early in the morning most of the skimmers settled down for a nap.

They look so cute with those fuzzy butts.

Many of the siblings were fighting. I’m sure the oldest gets fed first. If a stray baby gets too close to another family’s scrape, the parent will shoo him away.

There are so many skimmers nesting in the same area. The area gets roped off by volunteer bird stewards who keep an eye on the area. I guess there is safety in numbers. When a crow or gull flies over the area, looking to grab a stray baby or egg, many of the parents chase them away. That’s why it’s important to keep the parents from flushing and flying away. Those mean birds will sneak right in and grab something. They are hungry too.

This baby is letting his parent know he’s hungry.

The adults take turns going down to the water to take a quick bath and scoop up a fish to bring back to the nest while the other parent guards the babies.

A small portion of the skimmers hanging out along the water (with royal terns behind them). By now most of the babies are all grown up and flying around on their own.

Sushi for your first meal

On August 20, 2022August 20, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I missed seeing those little fuzz balls. I had not been over to the beach to catch the baby black skimmers growing up since the summer of 2019. This year I got there right after the sun came up. Black skimmers nest in huge colonies right on the sand on public beaches. The area is roped off with signs to keep people from stepping on the babies since they blend into the sand. These were all taken far away from the rope since I had my 300mm lens and extender on my camera. These are also cropped up. The parents were just starting to feed the babies when I arrived.

The baby ages ranged from 1 day old to a week old. It always amazes me how they get those fish down. Even though they are tiny fish, they seem like they couldn’t fit in the baby’s tummy. There were a few times when a baby tried to swallow and then dropped it because they couldn’t get it down. Usually the parent would pick it up and eat it themselves.

It also amazes me how a parent can fly down to the water and catch a fish and then come back and find their own baby. Sometimes they get chased around by other parents trying to steal the fish or a baby thinking it’s his parent.It’s always chaos during feeding time.

Sometimes the siblings try and get the fish from each other and fighting takes place.

It’s funny to watch when the parent brings back a needlefish. The parent may break up the fish with his beak before giving it to the baby.

What I think the skimmers say

On July 22, 2015July 17, 2015 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

“Don’t come close” says mom skimmer.

“I’ll just lean on this big stick.”

“You’re squishing me mom!”

“FISHHHHHH!!”

“When is my brother going to hatch?”

Mom, she’s taking my picture.”

“This fish won’t fit down my throat.”

“I know this isn’t a baby bird, but this ball is so soft to cuddle with.”

“Don’t eat me.” says the fish.

A people eye view of the skimmers nesting on the sand.

The birds are surrounded by ropes and there are signs all over the area to keep people from trampling through the nesting area.

More shots from my visit with the black skimmer colony on the beach back in late June.

One last look at skimmers for the summer

On September 29, 2014September 30, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography16 Comments

Soon the black skimmers will be hard to find for the winter. These were all taken back in late July at Fort Desoto. They were hanging around the beach near the fishing pier.

They look so graceful when they are skimming.

Scratching an itch.

Taking a bath.

Splashing around.

Drying off.

Showing off for the laughing gull. “My wings are bigger than yours.”

Out on the water trying to scoop up some bait fish.

They were all busy skimming for fish.

I was standing on the pier taking these pictures and a guy asked me what kind of birds these were. I said “They were skimmers.” He said “Why do they call them skimmers.” I politely explained that they skim the top of the water for fish but really, do they need an explanation if you see them in action?

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday Our World Tuesday Graphic