Little fuzzy quackers in the pond

On August 18, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

This spring has been a banner Cape May warbler year. I was at Possum Branch Preserve at the end of April which doesn’t get a lot of migrating birds but this morning there were several.

A black throated blue was also there, feeding in the mulberry tree.

Smaller flying critters along the path around the pond.

A purple gallinule was in the middle of the pond, standing on the spatterdock.

I think this bunny noticed me. He didn’t run though.

An osprey flies by with breakfast.

It was fun to see a big mallard family on the edge of the pond.

I plopped down on the grass for a while and watched them feed. Mom seemed proud of her babies.

Momma duck had better keep an eye out for this guy at the other end of the pond.

Under the bridge

On August 6, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I made another trip to Sand Key Park (next to Clearwater Beach) before the end of April hoping to see some new migrating birds. I could see downtown Clearwater across the water from the back of the park.

Before leaving I stopped under the bridge to Clearwater Beach to look for dolphins. This is a known spot for seeing them and while the water was beautiful and calm I didn’t see any this morning.

Looks like someone was getting a sailing lesson out on the intercoastal waterway.

I did find a lot of migrating birds but nothing new. There were several blackpoll warblers that weren’t shy.

A lone male redstart.

It’s always fun to see the juvenile male summer tanagers molting from their baby yellow feathers to their adult red feathers. I’ve only seen one with this mixed color once before. He was hopping all over the trees and busy feeding but not shy.

A few other warblers were a yellow warbler in the top shot and a female Cape May warbler in the bottom shot.

Lots of butterflies along the playground trail.

I saw a lot of this plant on the backside of the park and didn’t realize it was a castor oil plant. There’s a lot of it here.

I passed through Clearwater Beach on the way home. It looks like they were having some type of fair, like they need another reason to bring even more people to this crazy overcrowded, nowhere to park beach.

Looking for birds during spring migration

On August 2, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I had heard there was a ruby throated hummingbird nest at Sand Key Park in Clearwater but I never thought I’d find it so easily. This lady built this nest on a low branch hanging right over the trail near the playground. I was standing in the bushes watching her and every time someone would go jogging or walking by she would fly off and land on a branch nearby. I didn’t make it back here to see if she was successful with babies or if she abandoned it and moved somewhere more private.

While I was watching the hummingbird this black throated blue warbler hops right in front of me. He paused for a few seconds and took off.

Other yellow birds I found this morning in mid-April were a prairie warbler and a common yellowthroat.

There were several Cape May warblers, both males (in the first two shots) and a female (in the bottom shot).

I heard screaming from behind the trees and looked up and saw the above osprey flapping his wings. He had a half eaten fish in his talons.

Another osprey flew up behind him and he took off with his fish. They both went flying off over the trees.

I was walking on the trail and saw this Cooper’s hawk starting to feed on something. I couldn’t tell what he had at first, thinking maybe it was a mockingbird or dove.

Someone walked past me and got close to the tree and the hawk took off with his meal. It was then I realized he had a red bellied woodpecker. I’ve never seen anything eating a woodpecker before. It’s kind of sad but I know the hawk has to eat too. I just wish it was an annoying mockingbird.

This turned out to be a fun morning. I never expect too much and I didn’t see anything new but I did see a few cool things.

Still looking for spring birds

On July 26, 2025August 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park in mid-April but not early enough to catch sunrise. I started out on East Beach and found some royal terns looking for love.

It was mating season for the shorebirds and there was a lot of hanky panky going on early that morning. These birds don’t get any privacy. A sandwich tern (on the right) was interrupting the royal terns and got yelled at.

Or maybe they were just playing “leap frog”???

The male terns were bringing in fish to temp the ladies. I think this one was hoping one of these two ladies were going to take the bait.

Not sure what this conversation was about. Was she yelling at him to go get a fish?

This osprey had a big fish for breakfast.

A nanday parakeet sitting pretty.

I was hoping to see something new on the trail but only the usual migrating birds were there this morning: a female Cape May warbler, a black and white warbler, a red eyed vireo and a summer tanager.

I stopped in at the North Beach area and as I walked out on the beach I saw these 2 oystercatchers chasing another one away.

The oystercatcher nest was still there and Mom (she is banded with AE bands) was just coming back to the nest after chasing that interloper away with Dad. I could see that she was sitting on 3 eggs. They should hatch soon.

A red breasted merganser was shaking off the water.

A pelican fly by.

Flying across the water

On July 15, 2024September 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was the end of April and the end of spring migration. There would be a few stragglers coming through until mid-May but the majority of the birds had already come through. You would have to hunt pretty hard to find the late ones and it was already so hot. A lot of Cape May warblers were still around. I took so many pictures of these guys this spring since they were so plentiful and not shy.

I only saw one black throated blue warbler on this morning at Fort Desoto Park.

I saw several more blackpoll warblers. The top 2 are males and the bottom shot is a female.

A redstart was high up in the trees.

After walking the trails I headed out on the beach. I had not gotten to the park in time for sunrise this morning. The terns were still active flying around with fish.

The couple above was flirting and the male had brought the female a fish (their version of buying her dinner or in this case breakfast). She walked around him a few times with it and then gulped it down.

He was ready to mate but she was playing hard to get. They flew off so I’m not sure what happened.

It was windy this morning and before leaving I stopped at the east beach turnaround to watch the kiteboarders for a few minutes. It’s always fun to watch them flying across the water. They make it look so easy but it’s really hard to keep that kite up and stay on the water. I took the above with my camera and zoomed in.

I took these 2 with my phone so you can see how far away they are. A lot of them just getting started near the shore. It’s hard to get them all in one shot since they are all spread out across the water.

Almost the end of spring migration

On July 13, 2024July 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park near the end of April to look for migrating birds. This one was easy to find. I heard the Chuck-will’s-widow was near the bay pier. She had been there for several days and people thought she was nesting since she spent most of her time on the ground. They are not rare for the area but they are hardly ever seen. You can see how she blends into the ground. The area where she was hanging out was all roped off so you could see her from a distance. This was my 2nd sighting of one. The first was at the Dry Tortugas on a trip to Key West several years ago. I zoomed in on the 2nd picture because she had the most amazing whiskers across her face. She disappeared after about 2 weeks. She probably thought the area was too busy.

The nearby osprey nest was busy. I walked up right as Mom was feeding the babies.

I saw a lot of juvenile indigo buntings near the fountain. I think the 2nd shot is a female.

More Cape May warblers. They were everywhere this spring. The top 2 are males and the bottom 2 are females.

This was my first time this spring seeing a blackpoll warbler. They usually come through here in the spring but I didn’t see this one until almost the end of migration.

A catbird sits on top of the fountain.

The nanday parakeets were in their usual spots along the east beach trails. This one was eating the mangrove grapes.

I don’t often see pileated woodpeckers here although I hear them along the trails. This one was digging something juicy out of the soft wood.

Two more lifers in one morning.

On June 29, 2024July 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Above is the only picture I got of the yellow breasted chat. I had heard there was one here at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs last spring but I never made it up here to look for it. This year I had to go since I had never seen one before. It had been reported for 3 days before I got there. Early the first morning I looked for 2 hours with 2 other people and had to leave for a dentist appointment with no sighting. People reported it later in the morning so the next morning I went up a little later (around 8:30am). There were at least 20 other people looking in the area it had been seen the day before. After over an hour it made a brief (above) appearance. After waiting another hour I gave up and went for a walk around the rest of the park. It looks a little like the yellow throated warbler but without the black stripes.

There was a Cape May warbler bouncing around in the area where the chat was. This was a banner spring for Cape Mays. They were everywhere.

I found other usual spring migration birds around the park including a prairie warbler, a hooded warbler, a white eyed vireo and a northern parula.

My 2nd lifer of the morning was a Lincoln’s sparrow. He was on the other side of the park from the chat and was scratching around in the dirt along the mangroves near the water.

Above the Lincoln sparrow was a prairie warbler posing nicely in the bushes.

I saw the painted lady butterfly while we were waiting for the chat to show up.

Cloudy with a chance of rain

On August 20, 2023April 6, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park in late April. I was hoping there would still be some migrating birds stopping by. There was a small chance of rain even though it looked like it would pour at any time.

The only migrating bird I found was a Cape May warbler. There were several of these cuties in the woods near the ranger’s house.

Heading to the gulf fishing pier.

The usual birds were at the fishing pier including a ruddy turnstone showing me his missing foot and great egrets.

The laughing gulls were putting on a show on top of the shelter on the pier.

I thought maybe the sun would break through but it stayed cloudy.

Pelicans hanging out on the jetti next to the pier.

A quick shot of a red breasted merganser that was still there. They spend the winter here but usually leave in March.

It was still a nice morning out even though it wasn’t very birdy or sunny.

Lots of critters at Fort Desoto

On July 2, 2022June 20, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals2 Comments

Another trip to Fort Desoto Park to look for migrating birds. The first thing I found was a squirrel being cute on the agave plant. I was hoping there would be birds on those plants but no, I find a squirrel.

Cape May warblers were still around. I found both females and males.

I also found a northern parula and a blackpoll warbler (I hadn’t seen one of those in several years).

An osprey was checking me out making sure I wasn’t going to steal his fish.

Cormorants were diving for fish around the fishing pier.

It was a slow dolphin morning but I did manage to find one.

The starlings and nanday parakeets were fighting over wire space in the parking lot.

Adding two lifers to my list

On June 18, 2022May 13, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

Word gets around fast in the birding world when there’s a rare bird somewhere in the area. I had read on some bird sites Sunday night that there was a rare Kirtland’s warbler at Fort Desoto Park. It’s listed as one of the rarest warblers in the world. They winter in the Bahamas and spend summers in Michigan. I’ve never heard of one in Florida before. I got to the park just before 7:30 the next morning and there was already a small crowd staring at the bushes where he was seen the day before. No one had seen him yet. I was thinking this is probably going to be a needle in a haystack morning but then I saw Ed. Ed Rizer drove over from the Lakeland area and he is know for being able to find anything. I’m thinking if anyone can find this bird, Ed can. About 10 minutes later I looked around and Ed had disappeared. I’m thinking “He’s going to walk around and find that bird”. Not 5 minutes later I hear him yell “He’s over here”. The bird was in a different area but close by. Everyone ran over and we all started shooting. The bird was not skittish at all. Everyone stayed pretty far back (we all had our longest lenses with us). I spent about 15 minutes taken a ton of pictures of this bird. He stayed on the ground just outside of some bushes, feeding on bugs.

Later in the morning after walking around the park, I headed back to the area where the Kirtland’s was again. He had moved over to the mangrove bushes where we originally were looking. I left the crowds of people who had driven from all over Florida to see him.

There were a lot of other migrating birds but not a lot of variety. We found one rose breasted grossbeak. An ovenbird was on the trail and there were a lot of redstart sightings.

One bird I haven’t seen in several years was a black throated blue warbler.

There were a lot of Cape May warblers all over the park.

The 2nd bird I added to my list this morning was a black whiskered vireo. There was one seen several years ago here but I couldn’t find it. After looking for this guy all morning I was about to give up and leave and someone yelled out they found him. I snapped the above and headed home since it was way past lunch time.

This was a very productive morning in late April at the park. It still seems like there are less birds coming through every year.