A wildlife boat tour

Posted on March 18, 2024 by dinajohnston

While Brett and I were on our staycation on Manasota Key we took a boat ride/dolphin tour one morning. The boat wasn’t full since it was a little chilly so it was nice to have room to move around. We went down the intercoastal and out to Stump Pass to get out in the open water.

We passed several boats that were still stranded from Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Idalia. Ian (in 2022) did a lot of damage in the area. They still hadn’t fully recovered and Idalia came by (in 2023).

We passed an adult and a juvenile bald eagle that were sitting on a spit in the middle of the water. Looks like Junior followed Dad down to see how to get a drink of water (or catch a fish?). A little farther down we passed the nest. One adult was sitting in the tree. Thinking this is Mom.

As we made our way out of Stump Pass we could see dolphins swimming around nearby and lots of pelicans diving for fish.

This one had a big fish in his pouch.

We saw so many dolphins. Some were swimming right up against the boat and I couldn’t fit them all in and some were far out. It was a fun morning just floating around watching them come up for air.

On our way back we saw a handful of white pelicans napping on a spit.

We went in a few channels and this was a common sight. Many of the docks were still waiting to be fixed. The cormorants were taking advantage of the dock pilings not being used. Eighteen months after Hurricane Ian hit there were still a lot of roofs still covered and a lot of construction going on. One of the restaurants we ate at on the water had just recently opened back up after being closed for over a year. The waitress said everything in the restaurant was brand new.

Dolphins, a manatee and a spoonbill!

Posted on February 22, 2024 by dinajohnston

I was driving on the Dunedin causeway one morning in mid-November when I saw a roseate spoonbill feeding along the shoreline at the beginning of the causeway. I had my camera in the car so I turned around and got out and snapped a few shots before someone came walking down the beach and spooked him away. I’m glad I stopped before my walk because he would not have been there on my way back. He looked so pretty in the sun.

The grumpy looking ole reddish egret was there. I see him here often. He didn’t move an inch while I was taking pictures of the spoonbill. After a quick walk on the bridges I headed to the nearby marina to walk around.

As I walked around by the boats a dolphin was heading into the marina. He was fast but I was able to snap the above with my phone. I didn’t even see him leave.

When I walked out on to the fishing pier there were several dolphins heading out into the open water. The marina dolphin may have been one of them.

Someone was going to have a nice boating trip, although it wasn’t windy at all this morning.

There were several manatees in the marina swimming in between the slips. One came fairly close to the sea wall. It looked like he had some type of hump on his back but I couldn’t get a better shot.

I looked up from the manatees and saw a green heron hiding on a boat, watching me. They are common here and eat the bugs and small mangrove crabs on the dock poles.

A day at the pier

Posted on April 13, 2023 by dinajohnston

It was a perfect morning for spending some time sitting on a bench at the Oldsmar pier. As I walked out on the pier I noticed a small “fever” of stingrays in the shallow water. I took the above with my phone. They were pretty close and it was cool to watch them slowly swim out in the bay.

In late February the wintering ducks were still there. A few came close to the pier. Looks like they were lesser scaup.

I often see dolphins here but they are usually so far out in the bay that they look like little dots. This morning there were two that came swimming close to the pier. They were feeding and herding the fish close to the shallow part to feed easier. They splashed around for a few minutes before heading back out to the bay.

The dolphins headed straight into the floating ducks and off they went.

An osprey and a Forster’s tern flew close to the pier.

Far across the bay I could see an eagle chasing an osprey. The eagle was after his fish which he stole from the osprey but then took off in the opposite direction.

When I first got to the pier it was clear blue skies but later the clouds moved in.

Dolphins after Thanksgiving

Posted on January 1, 2022 by dinajohnston

Instead of hitting the malls on Black Friday after Thanksgiving (does anyone still do that?), my sister and I went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Even though Winter, (the dolphin who lost his tail and used a prosthetic tail) recently passed away, there are still other rescued dolphins to see. We spent the morning walking around the huge tanks watching them play. They have since taken in a new dolphin, Apollo, who was rescued near the space coast across the state. Apollo was stranded and really sick. He was found to have lost his hearing which made him unreleasable back to the wild so he will now live at the aquarium.

One of the dolphins was playing with a ball, pushing it around. He would pop it with his snout and then go chasing after it.

There are 2 rough toothed dolphins that live in the outside tank. The other dolphins at the aquarium are bottlenose dolphins.

Rudy and Rex have a great view (although it’s hard to take pictures of them in the shade). We were able to see them up close.

The dolphins don’t do tricks but if you are there during mealtime you might catch them playing around.

Looking for dolphins

Posted on December 27, 2021 by dinajohnston

The weather was too nice during the week of Thanksgiving not to be outside all week. My sister and I booked a dolphin tour out of the Clearwater marina one morning. Even if we didn’t see any dolphins, it would be a fun trip out on the water.

We were not going out to far, staying in the intercoastal waterway area. The tide was super low so we had to stay right at the channel markers. I could see Sand Key beach far off to the right.

Right away we saw a dolphin! We were cruising along next to another tour boat and a dolphin was right behind them, chasing the waves. Of course we were facing right into the sun so it was hard to get good shots. I see a lot of dolphins down at Fort Desoto but rarely see them coming out of the water this much so this was fun.

Some of the birds we saw cruising around including two white pelicans flying high up.

We also saw several dolphins chasing fish into the sea walls. They were flapping the water hard to stun the fish. After all of the dolphin sightings we headed out to a small spit island to look for shells. More on that later.

Hanging around the fishing pier

Posted on September 27, 2021 by dinajohnston

The views from both the bay and gulf piers. In the bottom picture, they are putting in a new utility tower that sits off the fishing pier. It’s weird to see the men tied off on top of that platform. I guess they didn’t want to risk a big splash in the water. It’s actually much higher up than it looks from the pier. They will eventually add the top part and the birds will be able to nest and hang out on it since the old one broke off years ago.

Color on the dunes.

Birds around the pier.

Several dolphins were coming up insanely close to the pier. They would pop right up along the pier as I was looking down so I could only fit in half of their bodies. There were at least 2 with one of them having a zig zag pattern near the blow hole.

Another beautiful morning at the beach

Posted on July 26, 2021 by dinajohnston

A cute little black bellied plover was busy looking for food.

Standing on the pier, I could see this dog catching an orange frisbee way down at the other end of dog beach. He caught it every time. He was having a blast.

It was a good morning for the dolphin show at the gulf pier at Fort Desoto. The water was clear and calm and the dolphins were swimming close to it.

I headed up to the top of the fort to see if there were any birds hanging around the agave plants. I only saw a grackle. The little green huts cover the air vents in the fort underneath. I always expect to see little hobbits running around and living in them.

The view from the top of the fort.

Looking in the other direction, down towards the beach, you could see the people coming in for the day. This was around 10am so you know it’s going to be crowded by noon. It really is a little piece of paradise (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!).

Things have changed.

Posted on June 14, 2021 by dinajohnston

The non-profit Clearwater Marine Aquarium opened on Clearwater Beach in 1972 in a former water treatment plant. They opened as a research and learning center and by 1980 they started rehabilitating dolphins. I don’t remember going there as a child when we use to come down to Clearwater to visit my grandparents but I do remember visiting a few times with my parents when they retired down here in the early 90’s. When Brett and I moved down here 19 years ago I got an annual pass and took my Mom there to see the dolphins a lot. She was in a retirement home and was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. She lived close by and it made for a fun morning out for her. She loved just sitting and watching the dolphins and turtles swimming around. Back then you could park at the front door and walk right in. No parking decks or lines to get in, You could also get pretty close up to the dolphins.

The aquarium is home to Winter (the movie star from A Dolphin’s Tale). Winter lost her tail years ago and the aquarium was able to get a prosthetic tail to help her swim better. It’s been several years since I had been and they recently had a big addition built on (they added a 1.5 million gallon tank) so I decided to head over to the beach to see Winter on a rare Monday off. I had to pay to park in a deck, stand in a line (small one though) to get in on a Monday. I’m glad they are doing so well though. They do a lot with injured sea life here. Not just rehabilitating them here but they send teams out to rescue as well.

You walk in on the upper level and can see into the pool. I didn’t take many pictures up here since it was dark inside and the dolphins were swimming lower down in the water. This is not a dolphin show like in the old days. These are injured dolphins that are being rehabilitated that you get to see up close. Although if you hit it right at feeding time, the dolphins do perform specific behaviors as part of feeding but no jumping out of the water and flipping over.

Here’s were you want to be. There are windows all around the tank so you can walk around and see different dolphins. Winter and her best friend Hope are in the main tank.

Winter did not have on her prostetic tail while I was there. You can see she is missing her flipper. Se came pretty close to the window.

On the other side there were several other dolphins swimming close to the window. The glare from the window did not make it easy to get pictures. The dolphins in the main tank live here full time now. They all have some type of injury including vision loss, hearing loss and other illnesses where they would not survive being released back into the wild. The main goal is to release the dolphins back out and most of them do get set free after they recover.

There are also many other types of animals here including lots of turtles. All were injured at some time. You can see in that (blurry) picture on the bottom that the turtle is missing his front feet.

The new building from the upper parking deck.

Pano across the intercoastal waterway looking towards Clearwater.

Looking toward the beach from the aquarium. I should have gone over for a quick swim but the beach was packed in April, even on a Monday. Parking on the beach is also tough and expensive so there’s that. And, I was starving so it was time to head home for lunch.

Yes, masks were still required in April here. Even though a lot of it is outside, people crowd in front of the windows. Hoping my next trip is maskless.

The fort at Fort Desoto

Posted on December 28, 2020 by dinajohnston

There is an actual fort at Fort Desoto Park. The fort was finished in 1900 and was used until after World W 2. Pinellas county bought the fort and surrounding area later and in 1963 it opened as a park. I don’t usually spend a lot of time there but one day in late October I wasn’t quite ready to go home for lunch so I thought I would climb the path to the top of the fort to see if there were any birds around.

You can rent bikes next door and I thought the bright colors popped against all of the green and blue.

Looking around the fort area, it reminded me of a picture I had seen looking through the old family photos.

Apparently I had been there when I was just a tot running around. It must have not been opened as a park long when we went because I was born in 1963. I must have less than a year old.

After the fort, I stopped by the fishing pier to watch the dolphin show.

At this point a storm was moving in and it was starting to drizzle so I quickly headed back to my car.

Fort Desoto in July

Posted on September 15, 2020 by dinajohnston

Skimmers cruising by trying to catch fish in their beaks.

This gull’s fish could barely fit in his beak.

Snowy egrets hovering over the light poles on the fishing pier. Different perspective which is a reminder to not stand under one of these poles if there’s a bird on top or you’ll get a bird poop shower.