Fun morning at the farm.

Posted on February 26, 2022 by dinajohnston

I hadn’t been to Horsepower For Kids (sanctuary/farm) in a long time so I stopped by for a visit at the end of December. All of the baby geese that had grown up in early 2020 were still there making the duck pond a busy place.

They had 2 new canadian geese at the pond. They swam close to the dock and I noticed they both had angel wings. Angel wings is a nutritional deficiency caused by improper diet. It means someone was feeding these geese too much bread when they were young and their wings didn’t grow properly. It can keep them from flying well and that’s probably why they are living here now. At least they have a great home to live in now. That’s why it’s so important not to feed the wildlife bread.

It’s fun seeing all of the different crazy “fowl” running around here.

Some of the other residents.

I was admiring this salad. These guys eat better than I do.

Butterflies are seen all year long here.

Hanging out with some funny faces

Posted on February 15, 2021 by dinajohnston

I found some new friends at Horsepower for Kids Sanctuary in late November. The toucan is a fairly new resident and was very friendly (he was surrendered by his owner).

You don’t often see white turkeys.

The ducks were being their usual cute selves in the big pond.

Roosters have a run of the sanctuary. Some are skittish and stay in the bushes and some will walk right up to you.

The big shells were enjoying their breakfast.

This guy was showing off.

Meet Morton

Posted on November 21, 2020 by dinajohnston

Since mid-October there’s been a wild turkey hanging out at Lake Morton near downtown Lakeland. At least everyone thinks she’s wild. There’s a few parks and preserves close by so she could have wandered far off her path and ended up here. The neighborhood did a naming poll and the name Morton stuck. She seemed pretty domesticated to me. I found her as I was walking around the lake and she came pretty close to me. People have probably been feeding her. All of the turkeys I’ve seen out in the woods are very skittish and run away pretty quickly. She better be hiding this week.

She was strutting around like she owned the lake. There are brick retaining walls in a few places around the lake and the white pelicans along with the ducks like to nap there. She walked up to the pelicans which are much bigger than her and chased them off the wall.

She then strutted over to another wall and chased the ducks away. The pelicans had moved on and were climbing up onto another wall and she went over and chased them again. She was causing a lot of chaos this morning. It will be interesting to see how long she’s there.

Hot morning at Horsepower for Kids.

Posted on September 12, 2020 by dinajohnston

The ducks were cooling off with a bath at Horsepower for Kids Animal Sanctuary in late June. It made me want to jump in with them and go for a swim.

I decided not to jump in the pond since the geese own the pond and they are aggressive.

Even the tricolored heron was cooling off in the water.

I’m not sure if this white pigeon was a resident or just a visitor. He wasn’t in a cage.

Some of the chickens hanging around.

Jealous of this guy sleeping (maybe not in the dirt though).

Close ups of the faces at the petting zoo.

A Saturday morning walk around the petting zoo.

Mama goose

Posted on May 9, 2020 by dinajohnston

Some of the water birds at Horsepower for Kids during my visit in mid-March.

One of these doesn’t belong. An ibis hanging out with the geese on the edge of the pond.

It’s always fun to see the peacocks showing off.

I saw this goose sleeping on the grass in the shade. I was wondering why she wasn’t sitting on her egg, hoping she realized it was there and wasn’t going to reject it.

Later I saw why. She was sitting on a lot of eggs and they all didn’t fit. She did move the one egg closer to her after she got up and stretched. She’s going to be a busy mom.

Along the sidewalk

Posted on April 21, 2020 by dinajohnston

Now that I’m working from home, I’ve been taking a short walk in my neighborhood early in the morning before starting work. The weather has been cool in the mornings so I wanted to take advantage of that before the heat and humidity sets in. I’ve been taking pictures of the flowers along my walk with my phone. It sure beats sitting in traffic.

On a cloudy morning, an osprey was eating breakfast on a light pole on my street.

This cute mallard mom started with 7 babies but she is now down to 6.

This muscovy mom started with 20 babies and now has 2.

The sun was just coming up as I headed out.

Lena’s ducks

Posted on March 23, 2020 by dinajohnston

Every couple of weeks we visit Brett’s aunt Lena that lives in a nursing home. The property is really nice and includes a small duck pond. We take her around the pond and sit on the bench watching the ducks swim around. I recently saw a redhead duck there all alone among the mallards.

These four ducks always stay close together.

Someone has been feeding them because as soon as we sat down, they came out of the water and right up to us. They were looking for a snack which we didn’t have. Other than the one that kept banging on my shoe when I wasn’t looking, they were pretty docile. All of these were taken with my phone.

Crescent Lake Park

Posted on August 5, 2019 by dinajohnston

Some of the ducks at Crescent Lake Park near downtown St. Pete. That grebe was here in June. He should have been up north for the summer. Maybe some of the grebes stay all year round. Normally they are only here in the winter.

The wild parakeets nest in the water tower near the park. I was able to catch them right along the lake in the trees and feeding right on the ground.

Other usually birds at the park.

Checking me out. No snacks for him.

A beautiful tree across the street.

Views from the park. I always love this view. Seeing the fish water tower in front of the few tall buildings in downtown St. Pete. As I’m coming around the corner at the far end of the park I always remember to turn around.

Feeding the ducks

Posted on April 27, 2019 by dinajohnston

The great tree where the ducks hang out at the retirement home where Brett’s aunt lives. The shade is amazing and it’s always filled with birds. We spent some time sitting on a bench visiting his aunt.

Ducks on the way to nap under the tree.

While we were visiting, someone came to feed the ducks. They knew this women and came flying over when they saw her walking across the parking lot.

She fed them a little bread but most of it was cracked corn and seed.They ignored me standing over them taking pictures with my phone.

The laughing gulls and ibis were fighting over the bread.

When we got home, this new family was cruising through our neighbor’s yard.

Below is a public service announcement with a link below that from the Audubon about feeding ducks.

Don’t Feed The Waterfowl.

Fort Desoto in early January

Posted on March 14, 2019 by dinajohnston

Little birds along the shore at Fort Desoto Park.

Weird sea slugs that were on the sand at low tide. The muck was full of these.

The tide would be coming in soon to wash this guy back into the water.

A very large raft of ducks far out in the water near the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I think these were mostly ring neck ducks.

Scenes from the beach.

In early January I was walking the trails and noticed an owl sitting in an old osprey nest.

Not a bad way to be stuck in traffic. On my way home I got stuck on the bridge for a few minutes while the bridge was up waiting for some tall boats to pass underneath.