Tides go up and down

Posted on March 21, 2024 by dinajohnston

It was mid-December and a bad storm was coming later in the night. I went out that morning for a walk in Dunedin and took the above at the Weaver Park fishing pier. The tide was super low with the impending storm. The small floating dock at the end of the pier was almost on the ground. I walked down the steep ramp and it felt weird looking up at the poles next to the dock.

The sun was trying to peek out but it never did make an appearance.

The storm came through in the middle of the night and brought a lot of flooding and downed trees. The next morning I headed out to the Safety Harbor fishing pier and found that the parking lot was under water. I parked farther away and went for a walk along the waterfront. The fishing pier was closed so the city could inspect it for damage just in case. While it opened later that morning I have recently heard they are going to tear down the old pier and build a new one some time this year.

The tide was up pretty high, almost to the sidewalk.

When I was walking along the nearby mangrove boardwalk I found a night heron hiding in the mangroves, away from the wind.

This wasn’t the highest the water has been but I’m sure it gave the people who live nearby a little scare. I love stormy days in the winter since it makes it feel like winter here but not the flooding they sometimes cause.

Fish for breakfast?

Posted on March 7, 2024 by dinajohnston

The weather at the end of November and into December can go either way. It can be still warm and icky or turn cold and sunny. Luckily it was the 2nd one this year. Although I was still in shorts at the end of November it was at least cool and 72 degrees. The sun had already come up when I started my walk on the Dunedin causeway.

I noticed a lot of young herring gulls on the beach side of the causeway and ran back to my car and got my camera. Herring gulls are snowbirds and only stay here during the winter. One had found a piece of fish floating along the shoreline. He played with it for a while and then dropped it and walked off.

A crow picked it up and then the herring gull was interested in it again.

Several more herring gulls showed up and they kept picking at it and dropping it.

A sanderling had found another fish part as well. He pecked at it for a few minutes and left it behind.

A pelican taking a break on the buoy marker.

It was too nice to go home so I stopped by the Dunedin marina for a quick walk.

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.

Walking the opposite way

Posted on January 26, 2023 by dinajohnston

My morning walk started out sunny in mid-December. I parked at the marina and walked in the opposite direction of my usual route. I followed the long sidewalk along the water that heads towards Clearwater.

I found another damaged stranded boat. A common sight since Hurricane Ian and Nicole. Eventually this will get hauled out of the water and probably scrapped.

Looking across the water to the left you can see the hotels on Clearwater Beach.

When I got back to the marina and headed for my car I was walking along the sea wall and spotted 2 manatees close by. I love seeing their big squishy snouts coming up for air. I wonder how old the one on the right is with all of those barnacles attached to his back. The barnacles are not parasites and don’t feed on the manatee. They just live on top and are hitching a ride. They can eventually fall off as well.

Finally out with my camera

Posted on January 7, 2023 by dinajohnston

In late November I was finally out with my camera since having my shoulder surgery in early October, I could still only pick up 3lbs so I had my older smaller camera on my lightest lens. All together they were at 3.5 lbs so I was cheating a little but kept the camera in my left hand for most of the time. It felt good to be out walking around with it but I had an old 300mm lens and didn’t have much reach. I headed to the Dunedin marina for a long walk and then pulled the camera out of the car and walked around by the boats for a short while.

There were a few shorebirds at the tiny beach in front of the marina. Willets and ruddy turnstones are always there.

Something spooked these semi-palmated plovers several times.

One of the resident osprey sitting on a sailboat mast. They have a nest right in the parking lot here so I’m looking forward to keeping tabs on the babies this year.

An anhinga resting on the old abandoned boat.

A phone shot, this old sailboat got wedge up against the channel marker during Hurricane Nicole in early November and has been stuck there ever since. It’s a great place for the birds to rest.

A great egret posing nicely.

Pelicans around the marina.

A manatee was right up against the sea wall. This was taken with my phone. The shadows of the railing were a little tough though.

I was on the way home and stopped at a red light when I saw a ton of white pelicans flying high coming towards me. I pulled over into the shopping center and was able to snap the above. This was only a small portion of them. There were at least 4 more of these cruising around the area. It was amazing to watch them swooping around and cruising.

A holiday walk down Main Street

Posted on December 22, 2022 by dinajohnston

Downtown Dunedin is all decked out for the Holidays. The small business owners on Main Street each decorated a light pole on the sidewalks. It was fun to walk around and look at each one. This is only a small sampling of them. I was here early in the morning, before the stores and restaurants opened so I didn’t have to dodge the crowds but the challenge was the shadows on the shaded side of the street. It was a festive way to get my walk in that morning.

Decorations in the parking lot.

Murals along Main Street. Notice the dogs painted on the right side of the top shot. Dunedin is also know as Dogedin. Most of the restaurants have outdoor seating and encourage people to bring their dogs. One has a dog menu and your table comes with a bowl of water for the dog. Everyone is out walking their dogs and many of the long time residents can point out their own dogs that were painting on the murals.

All of the birds were eating breakfast

Posted on November 26, 2022 by dinajohnston

I was out for a walk at the end of September and the tide was super low. I could see the gulls eating some type of puffer fish that was stranded in the grass beds. Although I never did actually see the gulls eating them, they just kept picking them up and playing with them. Maybe they were waiting for them to deflate.

An osprey cruises by with a tiny fish in his feet.

The little blue heron was busy eating.

There were several snowy egrets looking for food.They look so pretty against the blue water.

This boat must have lost anchor during Hurrincane Ian. It’s still there, stranded near the Dunedin causeway. It’s in pretty bad shape at this point.

A sunny hot walk in Dunedin

Posted on November 7, 2022 by dinajohnston

I took an early morning walk around the Dunedin marina in mid-September. The heat was stifling but the water was clear and blue. Someone fishing close by must have thrown out their leftovers and it washed up on the tiny beach at the marina.

This small boat club house was built in 1931. It’s amazing that it is still standing here on this small spit of land outside of the marina.

I took a quick walk up Main Street. The small downtown area is big on character. 8am is the best time to walk around and enjoy the quiet, before the parking spots and sidewalks are full (and it gets above 90 degrees).

Thankful and Heartbroken

Posted on October 6, 2022 by dinajohnston

This is a meme that is floating around social media from people in the Tampa Bay area. Maybe it’s a way of saying we have survivor guilt? For days Hurricane Ian was heading right to us and at the last minute it turned and made a direct hit south of us (The same thing happened in 2004 with Hurricane Charley). Total devastation from Fort Myers to Naples. Then massive flooding across central Florida. It was gut wrenching to watch the news. Most of St. Pete lost power but we only had yard debris so we were really lucky.

Sunset on the night of the hurricane, across the street from us.

We had super low tide the day after as well as the day of. These were taken on Thursday, the day Ian was forecasted to hit Tampa. Later that night the water came back with a surge but nothing like it was south of us.

Early Friday morning I went for a walk at the Dunedin causeway and the tide was still crazy low.

You could see where seagrass had been churned up and left in the low tide.

This is a common sight all over the bay, stranded boats. Many had the anchor come up and floated towards sea walls and bridges. Some got stranded at low tide. (Although these are nothing like the pictures from Fort Myers and south with boats on top of buildings and in peoples homes.).

Here is a video from CNN that shows the aftermath of Ian.

Red Cross Donation site.

A busy condo building

Posted on July 19, 2022 by dinajohnston

I could see the purple martins flying around the bird house from arcross the marina. I had brought my camera in the car so I drove around to the other side of the marina to check them out. All of the babies were fully grown at this point. There were a lot of purple martins on this big condo bird house.

Parents were bringing in food to the babies who were screaming to be fed.

I’m not sure what’s going on here. At first I thought a pair were still mating but it looks like one of the parents was trying to feed the baby. Or was the parent trying to push the baby off the house to start flying? Or maybe this baby was in the wrong condo and was hoping to get a meal from the wrong parent?

A few were flying and one landed on the grown but eventually made it back to the house.

Dina's Wildlife Adventures

Tag Archives: dunedin