A lot of flirting going on.

Posted on June 4, 2022 by dinajohnston

The usual shore birds were at the fishing pier in early April. There was a large variety of them hanging out together including those large ring billed gulls in the middle. They make the other birds seem so small.

There were a lot of royal terns on the beach. The two above with the orange beaks looked like they were flirting. They were standing at attention among the sandwich terns, common terns and willets.

They were definitely flirting. Walking back and forth together, almost like slow dancing. Their little black toupees were standing up.

Then we knew for sure they were flirting. The poor couple didn’t have any privacy although the willets weren’t really paying attention. It looked more like a game of leap frog than actual mating though.

They danced around again for a while as that kittiwake was keeping an eye on us.

They tried again but I don’t think she was really in the mood.

As I was leaving I noticed the crowd had thinned out. Everyone was here to see the kittiwake but there was so much more going on.

Fort Desoto Park in early March

Posted on April 18, 2022 by dinajohnston

I hadn’t been down to Fort Desoto Park since the middle of December so I was due for a trip in early March. The first stop at the park was North beach to look for shorebirds and reddish egrets. Most of the shorebirds were scarse this morning but I did see a cute little piping plover.

I was trying to focus on the laughing gull flying with something in his beak and realized you can see the Don Cesar Hotel far away on St. Pete beach. It’s hard to miss that big pink hotel.

This willet had a great snack and was trying to hide it from the other willets.

One last shot of the old bay pier and the old iconic yellow bait shop. It’s all being torn down now and replaced with a new pier.

Some of the shorebirds that were hanging around the small beach next to the big fishing pier. The willets and sanderlings were trying to sleep. At some point something spooked them and off they went before flying in a circle and landing back again. That common tern had been taking a bath and flew into the sleeping guys to catch a nap.

It was windy on the fishing pier and the usual birds were having trouble with their hair.

Someone caught a fish although it looks too small to eat.

I was out on the end of the fishing pier and could see this great egret with a big snack in his beak,

Old birds and a new one at Fort Desoto

Posted on October 7, 2013 by dinajohnston

It was a drizzly dark morning. I was in my car waiting for the storm to go by and I saw the above stork walk by my car.

Great blue heron wading in the water.

After the rain passed, I walked down the beach to look for the brown booby on the tower. I saw this sad wet juvenile laughing gull sitting on the sand.

A sandwich tern walking along the shoreline.

Marbled godwits walking along.

Common terns (??) standing in the water.

I think this is a juvenile sandwich tern flying by.

I finally saw him! The brown booby at Fort Desoto. I think this was my 6th trip looking for him. Actually, I go down there quite a bit anyway and kept stopping by the tower to look for him. Several other birders were there and all were excited to see him no matter how far away he was. He seems to rest out on the tower in the bay near the fishing pier off and on. This is extremely highly cropped. You can just barely make out the blue beak. I had a shot of his orange looking feet but the top of him was even more blurry. This was labor day weekend and he’d been randomly seen for over a month.

It gets harder and harder to find new birds. I read on Florida bird reports that different birds are spotted all over central Florida but work and family commitments have kept me from taking any road trips this summer. I’ve been sticking close to home and only on Saturdays. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get around this winter.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday