Another sighting of the juvenile reddish egret. He’s just a little bit bigger than when I saw him a few weeks ago.
The juvenile osprey flying by the pier.
Great blue heron flyby.
Black skimmers cruising by the fishing pier.
Ghost crab.
A really big boat.
In the shadow of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
A sunny morning at Fort Desoto before the summer rains started.
Beautiful sun going down on Fort Desoto Park. Happy 4th of July weekend!
Not the bird I was looking for. This osprey right next to the boat ramp did not want me to steal his fish.
This could have been the bird I was looking for but as he got closer I realized it wasn’t a great cormorant but just an ordinary double crested cormorant. This one flew over my head and was full of fishing wire.
Downtown St. Petersburg from the boat ramp.
Still not the bird I was looking for, this spotted sandpiper was trying to hide in the weeds that had floated up on the beach.
No great cormorant on this side of the park. Only shorebirds and gulls.
Maybe he hitched a ride on one of these boats.
Back in mid-December I had heard there was a rare great cormorant hanging around the boat ramp at Fort Desoto. This would have been a first for me so I finally made it down to the park after work on the night before Thanksgiving. It had been raining for days and it was nice to see blue skies again. This was my first of 3 trips looking for this silly bird with no luck. Hopefully he will show up when I least expect it.
Check out more sky pictures at
This is my view looking out the kitchen window. Our neighbor’s plant has gotten so big it is over the fence.
Plant in the yard.
Poinsettia in hanging baskets.
These do stay red through the spring.
Around our fence.
These are pretty in the fall.
Reflection of our neighbor’s boat. Taken from our dock and cropped up. The neighborhood osprey sleeps on top of this mast.
Down at the end of our channel. A Santa in someone’s backyard. I take a left in front of the Santa to get out to the bay.
Mangroves growing in our corner.
I threw last year’s poinsettia in the corner by the shed and it came back this year.
Hibiscus through our fence.
After leaving the Safety Harbor fishing pier, I headed over to Philippe Park to see what was swimming around the inlet there. First thing I noticed was the red breasted merganser. This is the first one I’ve seen this winter.
She was alone but there were a few horned grebes a little farther out.
The red-eyed devils had arrived for the winter. They were my first horned grebe sighting this season. They were swimming far out in the water.
Last winter they hung around the fishing pier but this winter they seem to be farther north.
From the park, I could see a lone eagle sitting far out in the middle of the bay on top of a utility tower.
Is that a burp? Yawn? Was it calling for its mate?
Later I saw the above fly over the trees away from me. I hope it’s the same eagle as the one on the tower and the mate is off sitting on eggs.
It was a beautiful weekend before the holidays.
