Another avocet sighting

On January 4, 2024December 24, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

In early October I heard there was a juvenile flamingo at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. It was late afternoon and I decided not to wait until the next morning to head to the park so I packed up and drove over even though it looked like it was going to rain.

On the back side of the little beach there were tons of shorebirds. As I was looking for the flamingo (which I didn’t find) I saw 2 avocets standing alone near the shorebirds. Even though I had just seen 19 of them at Fort Desoto a few weeks before I was still excited to see these 2. They stuck pretty close together.

It was getting late in the day and the laughing gulls were starting their bedtime baths.

A few of the other shorebirds nearby included a Forster’s tern, a ruddy turnstone and a dowitcher.

A great blue heron flies by.

I was hoping the sun would peak out when it got late but it didn’t look like that was going to happen so I left. I did manage to see that juvenile flamingo on another trip so more on that later.

Another flamingo attempt.

On December 18, 2023April 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

At the beginning of October I headed out to Fort Desoto to again, to look for flamingos. I had heard there were several at the North beach lagoon the day before. I got to the park right when it opened and made a quick stop at the East Beach turnaround for a few sunrise shots. I took the above with my camera. The sun was already up and barely peeking out.

I should have skipped the sunrise and gone straight to the North beach lagoon. When I got out to the beach I could see the tiny pink specks far north and had a long walk to get out there to get closer. There were already a few people out there getting some shots of the 3 flamingos feeding. I was barely halfway into my 15-20 minute walk up the beach when I saw flashes of pink take flight. All 3 flamingos took off away from the beach and flew over the trees and were gone. I managed to fire off a few shots as they headed in the opposite direction. I was bummed. They were not seen for days after that.

It was okay that the flamingos left. I was still at the park early and there were tons of birds still around. Both a sanderling and a dowitcher were doing a high step.

I found part of the oystercatcher family. There was one parent and two juveniles (the juveniles don’t have yellow eyes yet and the beak tip is still black). One of the juveniles was banded as a baby with red bands so we’ll be able to see how long he stays around the park.

I drove through the boat ramp parking lot hoping to spot the flamingos there and noticed this barge that looked like it had crab trap equipment on it. I’ve never seen a set up like this one. The anhinga and pelican were making good use of it.

I had to stop and take a picture of this cool bug outside the bathrooms. I’ve never seen this bug before. After doing some googling it’s an antlion lapwing which are common in central Florida. It was sitting out in the open and might make for a tasty meal for a bird.

A view of the newly built bay fishing pier from the end of the pier. The park demolished the old one and the pretty yellow bait fish store that was on the pier. Now there is just a big shelter in it’s place on the pier.

The sun was high up by the time I stopped at the bay pier.

The view from the bay pier looking down at the empty dog beach. The beach is always packed with dogs on the weekends so it was weird to see it so empty this early weekday morning.

Sleeping shorebirds

On January 28, 2023January 22, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

It was a quiet morning on the Dunedin causeway and I noticed a lot of sleeping shorebirds. After my walk I got my camera out of my car and started snapping the shorebirds. I found a lone black bellied plover mixed in with a lot of dowitchers. When I cropped this up I noticed the little dunlin on the right.

I usually only see large flocks of laughing gulls here so it was great to see all of the dowitchers sleeping together. Some were trying to nap and some were feeding. There were a few dunlins and ruddy turnstones mixed in as well.

My camera could only catch a small portion of them at a time.

Some were flying in and out of the sleeping group.

A little farther down the beach I found a lone skimmer.

A pelican cruises right above the water.

Late day walk at Fort Desoto

On January 30, 2021January 7, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I’m still going through my pictures from Fort Desoto in late October. So many shorebirds there at that time. Tons of gulls, terns and skimmers. The 2nd shot is of red knots, feeding before their trip south for the winter.

Many of the birds were taking baths before it got dark.

An uncommon herring gull.

Not sure what kind of snack this laughing gull has.

Some of the smaller shorebirds. Yellowlegs, dowitcher, a black bellied plover and a tiny snowy plover that was smaller than this pile of sand.

It’s weird to see turkey vultures on the beach. They were really in the muck at low tide. The one on the right had a small piece of fish under his foot that he was eating.

Great egret flyby.

This kid was throwing his frisbee into the birds. Why is it so fun to watch the birds flush? Someone walked over to him and asked him to stop and explained that the birds needed their rest before they migrate for the winter. He really just didn’t know. He stopped and went back to his family.

Heading home back into Tampa right before dark, I saw the moon coming up and had to stop and take a picture.

Honeymoon Island beach before the tourists get here.

On April 20, 2017April 20, 2017 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

After walking the nature trail at Honeymoon Island State Park, I headed over to the beach to see if there were any shorebirds hanging around.

The usual birds were there: marbled godwits, royal terns and dowitchers.

The waves were splashing over the jetties. It was fun to be out in one of the last cool windy days before the heat sets in (and the tourists).

SkyWatch Friday

Napping and breakfast in the morning

On August 19, 2015August 9, 2015 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

It’s always sad to see a one footed bird. This laughing gull seems to be doing okay though.

Take a “tern”. Royal terns and a sandwich tern.

The always present oystercatcher.

Dowitchers and willets taking a morning nap.

A baby laughing gull screaming for his mom to bring food.

Breakfast time for dowitchers.

Keeping an eye on me.

A few birds on the beach in the middle of summer.

Shorebirds trying to sleep

On December 17, 2014December 8, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I made a quick trip to Fort Desoto one night after work. I got there right before dark and the shorebirds were already trying to sleep. The sun was going down and they were settling in for the night. The east beach was full of dunlins, dowitchers, sanderlings and the usual terns and gulls.

Fun morning at Fort Desoto – Skywatch Friday

On July 24, 2014July 21, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

An oystercatcher couple were feeding along the shoreline right when I walked out on the beach.

Upclose. He was digging pretty deep.

A dowitcher also digging for food.

It was dig deep day at the beach. Even the ibis were doing it.

A snowy egret cruising for tiny fish.

Turtle nests were everywhere at the park. I’ve never seen so many nests there before. The rangers keep them roped off and has even relocated a nest if the turtle lays the eggs right in the middle of a main tourist area. Taken with my Iphone. Update – on 7/20, the park reported having 86 turtle nests there. This is a record!

A busy day for some photographers. I think they were shooting a great blue heron. When you fly down from across the country, you’re out there concentrating and getting the most for your day. Kind of like what I did when I was in Arizona for vacation. Every day was packed. It’s nice to know I can stop by here for a leisure stroll and get pictures if I happen to see something fun. The guy in the bright blue shirt is the famous photographer, Moose Peterson. I have his book Captured and love it. I stayed away from his group since I knew they were busy but I have chatted with him before in the parking lot a few years ago.

Before I left the park, I stopped by the fishing pier to see if anything interesting was going on. There’s always snowy egrets chasing after dropped bait fish.

A great blue heron staring down at me from the shelter.

Someone had asked me how I had gotten the close up pictures of the bird’s face looking down at me. I took the above with my Iphone. There are several rain shelters on the pier and the birds hang out on the roof. You can walk right up to the edge of the roof and they stare down at you. They want to know if you’re going to throw them some food or fish.

Crazy cormorant on the light post was giving me a big yawn.

Overhead, a frigatebird flies by.

“Sailing takes me away…”

Off into the wild blue yonder! The view from the end of the pier.

Another perfect hot sunny morning at Fort Desoto park.

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday

Looking for a new gull.

On January 29, 2014January 17, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

“Excuse me, are you guys Franklin’s gulls?” I said to these two. One gull said “Almost. Franklin’s gulls have a white chest and more black on their head.” The other gull said “And they have a little shorter beak than we do.” “Yea, we’re just plain ole laughing gulls that haven’t grown up yet.”

“Excuse me, can you stop preening so I can see if you’re a Franklin gull” I said. He said “I’m not one either lady.”

I kept looking in the big flock of birds on the beach. “Hey, you look different” I said to this one. He was half asleep.

“Hey Franklin gull, wake up. This lady’s been looking for you” said the laughing gull.

“Another fan. How boring.” said the Franklin gull.

“Okay lady, get your picture.”

I said “Can’t you at least stand up for a minute?” He said “Nope, I’m going back to sleep.”

At least the big herring gull stood up for me.

This juvenile herring gull was picking at a dead fish.

“Don’t take my breakfast, lady.”

A ring billed gull flies overhead.

Not a gull but a dowitcher. There were a lot of these on the beach.

It was a foggy Saturday morning. I went down to Fort De Soto because I heard there was a summer tanager and a few western kingbirds hanging around the parking lot area near the fishing pier. I got down to the park around 8:30am and there were already a lot of birders looking for both birds. No sighting at that point. We all walked around for at least an hour with no luck so I decided to run over to the beach and see if by miracle the Franklin’s gull was there. This was my 4th time looking for that silly gull. I didn’t see him anywhere near the pier. I walked back over to the wooded area where the other birds were seen and the tanager had just been sighted (more on that one later). We were all standing there staring up in trees when someone said they had just seen the Franklin but he was much farther down the beach. After taking a handful of pictures of the tanager, I drove down to the other end of the beach and walked around looking for him. This time I got lucky. A huge flock of gulls were sleeping together and there he was with his dark head. It was nice that the sun came out for a second right when I saw him. By then it was lunchtime so I snapped a bunch of pictures and headed home.