The bird rookery

Posted on June 12, 2021 by dinajohnston

Catching a little blue heron lift off.

Snowy egrets were showing off.

Baby great egrets were screaming for Mom to feed them.

The sky over the Tampa rookery was busy in early April. It was like standing at the airport during the holidays watching the planes take off.

The cormarants and anhingas are usually high up in the trees but I saw this anhinga sitting on a nest low on the other side of the rookery.

There were many other birds at the rookery besides the usual egrets and herons. A night heron, a female red winged blackbird and a catbird were also sighted. I was excited to see the glossy ibis here in the bottom picture but it looked like the couple was working on a nest on the backside of the rookery so seeing little glossy babies is a slim chance.

Back at Bok

Posted on May 24, 2021 by dinajohnston

Driving into Bok Tower Gardens you wind through orange groves and you can see the top of the carillon hovering over the trees. At this point the trees were heavy with ripe oranges in early April. I wish it was closer to my home. It’s an hour and a half away but worth the drive every once in a while. The worst part is putting your life on the line driving across crazy I4 for about 45 minutes but after that it’s a nice back road drive through small towns. I like seeing the cows as I pass by and I keep an eye out for eagles cruising in the skies.

This huge beautiful arrangement greats you at the entrance of the visitor’s center.

Lots of yellow and orange blooming when I was there. I love the orange sunflowers.

Little critters were flying around.

I found a lot of amaryllis blooming near the back exit by the parking lot. It made me think it was still Christmas but the heat reminded me it was not.

This was an interesting cactus. I don’t remember ever seeing these guys sprout like this. It looked like a big asparagus growing out of it.

I was hoping for a few spring migrates at the bird feeder by the pond but all I got was catbirds and cardinals.

While sitting on the bench waiting for birds at the feeder, this guy walked right up to me. Maybe people feed them here? He looked at me for a few seconds and then went to the ground under the feeder and started digging around for seeds. I think we had a connection!

All the colors of the rainbow passing through.

Posted on August 7, 2018 by dinajohnston

A not very common Swainson’s Thrush.

Summer tanagers. The bottom one is an immature male.It’s cool to see them when they are half yellow and half red.

Gray birds: a wood pee wee and a catbird.

I think this is a female Orchard Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole.

Beautiful blue indigos.

Red eyed vireos.

Magnolia Warbler

A bay breasted warbler was hiding high up in the trees all morning.

Lots of different little birds at Fort Desoto at the end of April.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.

Grosbeaks and friends migrating through

Posted on June 19, 2018 by dinajohnston

Male rose breasted grosbeaks were all over Fort Desoto in mid-April. They were eating the mulberries while resting up before their migration up north. Most of them had mulberry juice all over their beaks.

A few females and juveniles were also munching on the berries.

Catbirds were eating as well.

I only got a brief glimpse of the Baltimore oriole before he took off.

I only saw one indigo bunting on this trip but more would pass through later in the month.

A small portion of the crowd at Fort Desoto during spring migration in mid-April. It felt like there were more people than birds that morning but at least there were a lot of eyes looking out for the birds. There wasn’t a lot of variety there but it was still early for migration.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.

Checking on the nests at Honeymoon Island

Posted on March 27, 2018 by dinajohnston

True to its name, the Osprey Trail on Honeymoon Island is known for having a lot of Osprey along the trail. There are many nests along the trail and when I was there in late January, the osprey were working on refreshing the old ones.

Both eagles were sitting in a tree near the nest which was a bad sign. They were sitting on eggs earlier so something must have happened to cause them to abandon the nest. They might try again. It was still early.

Towhees, catbirds and yellow rumped warblers were all along the trail.

Lots of vultures here.

New growth in some of the prescribed burn areas.

This guy walked right in front of me on the trail.

I hadn’t been to Honeymoon Island since last spring. I wanted to see if the osprey were nesting yet. Honeymoon Island is a barrier island north of Clearwater Beach. In the 1940’s the island was a place known for people to spend their honeymoon in the cottages on the island. Once World War 2 started people stopped coming to the island and later the cottages were torn down.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World

Lots of the same at Chesnut Park

Posted on February 12, 2018 by dinajohnston

Lots of deer in early January.

Lots of squirrels but that bottom looks a little rough.

Lots of little birds but nothing new.

Red shoulder hawks hiding along the trails.

Eagles flying far away across the lake. Both an adult and a juvenile.

Found these two ducks at a quiet end of a pond. I’m thinking they are pets that got dumped here. Someone left food in a small plastic container. I just hope they know enough to stay away from the gators.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Road trip to Central Florida

Posted on April 17, 2017 by dinajohnston

A lone female painted bunting was eating at the feeder near the pond.

A catbird on St. Frances’s head.

Your basic mockingbird shot.

There must have been a robin convention going on. They were everywhere at the park.

Really cool roots on the trail.

Pictures of the carillon tower at Bok Tower Gardens I took with my phone.

After I left Bok Tower Gardens I stopped by Lake Parker in Lakeland to get out and walk around for a few minutes before heading back to Tampa. It was a quiet afternoon with only a few critters near the boat ramp.

Next to Lake Parker is a huge soccer field. There was no one playing on the field that day but I’m sure on a weekend there are tons of kids running around. There were light posts along the fields and in between them with nests on them. All of them had osprey nesting on top except for one. One light post right at the entrance to the field had an owl nest. The sun was not in my favor that afternoon but I was able to get the above. There were two almost grown owlets on the nest with Mom but one was hiding on the other side of Mom. On nights and weekends these fields are packed with screaming kids playing ball. I guess the owls don’t mind.

A few things I saw on my central Florida trip to Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales and Lake Parker in Lakeland in early March.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

Common and uncommon birds at Chesnut Park

Posted on December 12, 2016 by dinajohnston

Above are some of the common birds you see in the winter here. An Eastern phoebe, a catbird, a black and white warbler and a blue-gray gnatcatcher.

Another common year round bird, the pileated woodpecker. Most of the time I usually hear them screaming from high up in the trees. This one came down a little closer.

A house wren is not that common.

Yellow throated warblers are common in the winter but they tend to hide up in the palm trees and under the palms.

I think these are all pine warblers.

Not a common bird for me to see, a black capped chickadee. There were several high up in the trees near the boardwalk.

A very strange but not uncommon bird flying over the lake.

Lots of little birds flying around Chesnut Park in early November (a few big ones too).

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Flying things at the Botanical Gardens

Posted on November 28, 2016 by dinajohnston

A cat bird in the berry bushes.

A young little blue heron in the lake. There is water under there.

Tiny critters buzzing around.

A house wren hanging on a Christmas decoration.

This cute Carolina wren was giving me some attitude.

A few flying things at the Florida Botanical Gardens in late October.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

Nothing but skeeters at Honeymoon Island in December

Posted on January 14, 2016 by dinajohnston

And this eastern towhee. I don’t see these very often.

Catbirds are very common here.

It’s common to see a kestrel high up in a tree.

The eagle is on the nest. I’ve heard that the rangers have reported there are eggs. I could just barely see her head sticking up. I did not see the other parent that morning.

A downy woodpecker hanging around.

I saw this juvenile bald eagle way out in the lagoon across from the nature center. The tide was very low and the oyster beds were exposed.

It’s not fun to go on a hike in early December and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had two coats of bug repellant on with high DEET content. I still came home with 15 bug bites. They were biting my hands, my ears, my face. I stopped and sprayed my hair since they were dive bombing my head. Usually if I keep moving they don’t bother me too much but they were chasing after me as I walked very quickly down the trail. We need a good cold spell to get rid of these guys (like days with a high under 50). It was 85 degrees.

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