A drizzly morning walk

On February 26, 2024April 19, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I don’t hate foggy dreary days. It’s the only time it feels like winter here in central Florida. I’d rather it not drizzle though when I’m out walking around with my camera. I got to the Roosevelt Wetlands in late November when it was foggy but as I started walking down the trail it starting to drizzle (or spit as my Dad used to say). I just put my hood over my head and kept walking.

I could see a bunny up ahead on the trail in the middle of the goldenrod. Most of the goldenrod was starting to fade here.

There was a redhead duck couple swimming away from the usual mallards, coots and moorhens. They stayed on the other side of the pond.

In the middle of the pond a coot was being chased away by some moorhens.

The grackles were keeping the anhingas company on the dead snag.

Even without the sun shining on him the grackle was showing off his pretty colors.

A female grackle also looking pretty on the alligator flag (thalia) plants.

I can’t ignore the blue gray gnatcatchers.

A sora rail was hiding in the reeds along the bank.

It drizzled on and off while I was there. The sun was trying to peek through the clouds when I was leaving.

A loggerhead shrike was sitting close to the trail. He was a little wet.

The sun was about to come out on the way home so I stopped at Possum Branch Preserve for a quick walk. It was pretty quiet but there was a lone redhead floating in the main pond.

A new bird on a full moon

On February 10, 2024February 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

At the end of October I heard there was a new bird in town. A Wilson’s warbler had been sighted at the Largo Nature Preserve. I had never heard of this bird being anywhere in the Tampa bay area. For several days there were tons of people posting sightings of it on Ebird so I finally made it to the preserve.

I took a quick trip around the boardwalk and noticed the moon’s reflection in the water so I took a shot before it went all the way down.

I went to the spot where the Wilson’s had been sighted and saw a few birds hopping around in the brush. I noticed the above with some yellow but I realized it was a Nashville warbler which was also a great migrating bird.

I didn’t wait long for the Wilson’s to hop into sight. A new bird for me. He’s almost all yellow with a black cap on his head. He was easy to spot mixed in with the titmouse and blue gray gnatcatchers. After those few minutes of fun seeing the new bird I went for a walk around the park.

A young purple gallinule was in the pond. This was the first time I have seen one here.

It seemed late for ducks to be mating but I guess since it was still so warm that mating season is almost all year round here in central Florida.

Seeing blue with a blue jay and a blue gray gnatcatcher.

Butterflies were still around.

A cutie on the trail.

A tiny bit of fall with the red leaves coming out.

Critter transports in mid-September

On December 23, 2023December 19, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals3 Comments

More rescue transports for the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay. These are from the middle of September into October. I got a text in the middle of September that a baby squirrel needed a ride from an emergency vet to a rehabber. Emergency vets will take in wildlife but they usually don’t treat them. They call rehabbers to come and get them. This teeny tiny baby needed to get warmed up and fed so I made the trip and brought it to the Raptor Center. It’s better if the parent raises the babies but someone had found it in their yard and the Mom never came back.

A few days later I headed over to the Raptor Center to take a box full of squirrels and an injured crow to Penny, the rehabber in St. Pete.

On the way from Brandon to St. Pete I stopped at an emergency vet in South Tampa. Someone had found a Cooper’s hawk laying down in their driveway. I was crushed when I picked up this beautiful hawk and saw how sick he was. He had either been hit by a car or had eaten a poisoned rat. Either way he had a tough road ahead. If it was a poisoned rat he will probably not make it.

A week later I made another trip from the Raptor Center to Penny, the rehabber. This time it was a young squirrel and the cutest baby bunny.

A few days later I made another trip with the same type passengers. This baby bunny was even tinier.

Early October brought my first gopher tortoise passenger and there were 3 of them. Two had been hit by a car and one had been found lost on a construction site. They made the trip from Raptor Center to Swamp Girl Adventures in Kissimmee, near Disney World. Kim at Swamp Girl specializes in rehabbing all types of turtles/torts and other reptiles. Gopher tortoises have Florida state-designated threatened protection due mostly to loss of habitat from over population and building. They are listed as a rare species in this area and there are several programs trying to re-introduce them into the wild. These guys were very special passengers.

The next week was a quick trip. A great horned owl with an injured eye had been picked up by a rescuer near my home and I picked it up from her and drove it out to Raptor Center in Brandon.

In mid-October I had a car full of critters that I had picked up at the Raptor Center and drove down to Penny in St. Pete to finish rehabbing and eventually release. An osprey with an injured wing, the same owl with the injured eye I had picked up days before, an injured screech owl and a tortoise. The tortoise was not a gopher but someone’s pet that had an injured shell. A dog had bitten through the young shell and the tortoise was surrendered to a vet. I’m not sure what Penny will do with it once she fixes the shell. Maybe it will get sent to a zoo or sanctuary.

A hot morning walk with the usual critters

On October 30, 2023April 9, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

All of the usual big birds were at Chesnut Park for my morning walk in late June (anhinga, yellow crowned night heron, limpkin).

The wood duck babies were almost fully grown.

Birds were flying overhead (royal tern, osprey).

Things were blooming in the swamp.

Deer and bunnies were easy to spot.

I don’t often see barred owls here but this one was very visible, taking a nap along the boardwalk.

A cardinal was eating the seed that someone had left on the boardwalk.

More from Bok Tower Gardens

On September 14, 2023September 14, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants, Vacation5 Comments

Peter Rabbit still hanging around long after Easter.

Some different plants growing at the Bok Tower Gardens in early May. The first one is a balloon cotton bush. I would love to have one of these in a pot in my yard but they are not native to Florida. The 2nd one is a type of pitcher plant. I just recently got a hanging pitcher plant and repotted it so we’ll see how that one does.

This tiny black racer ran across the trail in seconds, before I could even get my camera up to my face to take a shot. I found him in the bushes a few minutes later. He was really skittish.

One of the big koi fish looking for a handout.

I’m not sure what these are. They were in a different pond and there was a feeding station next to. Luckily I had a few quarters so I fed them a handful of fish food while I was snapping these with my phone.

One of the many views at the top of the hill near the carillon.

Palm tree reflections in the big pond in front of the carillon.

I always snap a few shots of the carillon when I visit.

Before heading home I took a little road trip to the cow pastures to look for the wild whooping cranes. I had recently heard that one of them had disappeared and had been missing all winter. The one was still there, far out in the pasture. It was sad to see it all alone. I hope it finds a mate soon.

Lots of birds on the trail

On August 31, 2023August 30, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I had not been out to Roosevelt Wetlands since last summer. I forget what a cool small reserve this is. I had heard there were some new birds there so I went for a short walk in early May. The raised trail down the middle of the pond is full of Indian blanket flowers and they were in full bloom.

I immediately saw a bunny right on the trail.

The sun had been up for a while and I could see an osprey sitting on the platform nest ahead of me.

I could hear him yelling as I passed the platform and turned around to see the juvenile staring right at me.

This Momma moorhen was busy with 2 little ones.

There were several young little blue herons along the trail. They were just started to get their blue feathers in.

An adult little blue heron shaking it off.

A least tern flies by.

I also saw several spoonbills.

A kildeer was walking in front of me and then disappeared into the flowers.

I did find those new shorebirds that were here but more on those later.

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.

Road trips in June.

On August 12, 2023April 7, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

It was early June and the call went out that Raptor Center of Tampa Bay needed help with some transports. I was ready for a road trip. The above juvenile great blue heron had been injured and needed to go to Seaside Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores Beach, just under an hour away. Nancy put him in the tote. I was a little nervous around that big beak. He settled down pretty quickly.

Since the great blue heron took up most of the trunk the almost grown barred owls went in the back seat. There were 3 altogether. Two were siblings and were in the crate while the younger one was in a carry box. These guys along with the bunny below went to the rehabber (Penny) that lives in south St. Pete. The owls are almost ready to be released and Penny will get them ready.

This little cutie sat in the front seat and only barely stirred a few times on the trip.

A few days later a young osprey had fallen out of the nest and could not be re-nested so I drove him down to Penny to raise until he can be released. Nancy told me that all of these osprey growing up on platforms is not a good thing. It’s better for osprey to nest in big trees and then the babies can hop around from branch to branch before flying (just like eagles). Most osprey in Pinellas county now nest on utility towers or platforms placed by utility companies to keep them off the towers. Just like most other counties the over population means so many trees are being cut down for homes and buildings. On platforms the babies start flapping and fall right to the ground. The parents won’t feed the babies once they are on the ground and many of them have some type of injury. The baby was calm in Nancy’s arm even though she managed a few yells before going in the transport box.

Another few days went by and there were more juvenile osprey on the ground. I picked up two of them at Nancy’s (of Raptor Center of Tampa Bay) in Brandon and headed down to Save Our Seabirds in Sarasota. All of the rehabbers are full of birds and they could only take one osprey.

I have been here to visit the sanctuary as a tourist several times but it was the first time to come through the emergency back door. I was able to see the clinic for a few minutes but they were crazy busy so I left to make my next drop off.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the bridges. First coming back on the Ringling Bridge in Sarasota and then across the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

I dropped the final osprey off at Penny’s. She took her out of the crate and she didn’t seem afraid of her at all. If all goes well she’ll be released soon.

Road trip to central Florida

On October 3, 2022September 26, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants, Tampa bay sights4 Comments

Bok Tower Gardens was bursting with color this summer.

I struggled to get a decent shot of the hummingbird. The light was bad but I managed to get the above. It was hot and muggy so it makes it harder to wait to get the hummer in those fleeting seconds of feeding.

It’s hard to ignore the cute cottontail bunnies

The bell tower

After leaving the gardens, I headed to a nearby fish camp to see if I could find any birds. It was quiet the morning I was there but I’m sure on the weekends it’s busy.