Tag: florida

More from the candy store – spring migration

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography16 Comments

My first magnolia warbler.

Female orchard oriole. I had seen these earlier in the week.

My first hummingbird shot.  When I was growing up we had a feeder in the backyard in front of the dining room window. I used to see them and think they were neat. It never occurred to me back then to take a picture of it.

It was amazing watching them hover. I wished the light had been better. We were in the woods and the sun had gone down behind the trees. There was a little light but it wasn’t consistent. I’m going to keep my eyes out for these little guys on my next trip.

Hummingbird resting on a tiny branch. He must be tired.

A few more pictures from my early night at Fort Desoto during the week of fall out in late April.  I could finally call my hubby and say “I’m gonna be home late. We got fall out!” (Yes, we saw The Big Year).  Ron at Pinellasbirds.com said this was a record migration through the area in a given week. I only saw a spit of what was out there.

One thing I’ve learned is that it’s really hard to get decent shots of these little guys. It’s a lot  harder than a shorebird sleeping on the beach or an eagle sitting on a nest. They are usually high up in the trees or deep inside them. There’s always leaves and branches to deal with. The light is harder in the woods with shadows. They are a lot more skittish than bigger birds. You have to sit quietly and wait for them to come down which is hard to do when there’s a steady stream of people walking by. Any news of birds and the woods are full of people. Most are quiet and stay back but you get at least one loud person getting too close to the feeder or fountain.  Especially with the hummingbird feeders. We kept telling people to stay far back and they will come down and feed. People kept getting too close trying to take pictures with their camera phone.

Anyway, the whole experience and two short visits to Fort Desoto were a lot of fun.  I met a lot of great birders who were helpful with id’s.

For more pictures check out Our World Tuesday  Our World Tuesday Graphic

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Like a kid in a candy store – spring migration.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

My first rose breasted grosbeak.

Not my first black and white warbler. I have seen a couple in that past but there were quite a few flying around at Fort Desoto.

My first scarlet tanager. There was a few there but they stayed high up in the trees.

My first Baltimore oriole.

My first eastern wood-pewee. At first I thought this was a phoebe but the bill is a little lighter.

I thought I had missed the boat. Saturday, 4/21, a nasty storm moves through the Tampa bay area. I did chores and ran errands. Sunday morning I woke up to sunny skies so I headed out to a park. I thought that since there were extremely high winds at Fort Desoto, it might not be a good place to go since water birds tend to be scarce on windy days. I decided to go inland to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. It was a nice morning and I saw some cool things. Later that night I was reading Pinellasbirds.com and just found out how little I knew about birding. The sky was falling with birds at Fort Desoto. Record numbers of migrating birds had landed there. I knew I had a long work week ahead so my heart fell. But all was not lost. I was able to leave work at a reasonable time on Tuesday night and headed straight for Fort Desoto. I headed first to the east beach turnaround and then to the mulberry bush woods at the ranger’s house. There were birds flying everywhere. All colors flashing by. I was so excited I didn’t know where to start. I just stood there and started snapping away. I stayed until the sun went completely down and it was dark driving out.  More to come tomorrow.

On the road to spring migration – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I heard the birds were here. After work I headed for Fort Desoto to get in an hour or two of looking for spring migration birds. Of course, I get stopped on the bridge waiting for a sailboat to pass. While waiting, I pulled out my camera and shot the above from my car window. Sunshine Skyway bridge is pretty far away.

I first stopped at the East Beach turnaround. I had heard the mangroves there had some migrating birds. I only saw a few shorebirds including the one above. I think this is a least sandpiper.

This female red breasted merganser was strutting the beach. She should be heading north by now.

My first tree barn swallow picture. There were tons of these flying high around the turnaround. For the first time I actually saw one land in the bushes. Thanks, Michael and Steve for the correct id.

Big barge heading under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I didn’t stay long at the turnaround. I quickly headed to the mulberry bush woods to see if there was anything there I hadn’t seen before. Boy, was I in for a treat. More to come…

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday Skywatch Friday

My friend Michael mentioned that it was 32 years ago yesterday when an outbound freighter hit the original Sunshine Skyway bridge causing it to collapse and close for good. Thirty five people lost their lives.  The new bridge was opened in 1987 and part of the old bridge was taken down in 1990. Part of the old bridge is used today as a fishing pier. The above picture was taken sometime in the late 80’s by my dad with both bridges still up. I found his old picture this past weekend when I was looking through his  slides that I had scanned to digital.

Eating crabs

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

“Here comes some more photographers. I guess I should put on a show for them. I am a little hungry anyway.”

“Wait, don’t take the shot. I’m choking here.”

“Got another one. This is way too easy.”

“I feel like an owl twisting my head this way.”

“Yummy, I wish I had some butter for these crab legs.”

“Down the hatch”

“Hey, what about me? I got a crab too.” says the tiny Wilson’s plover.

The long billed curlews at the North Beach sanctuary at Fort Desoto have a reputation for being very accommodating if they’re out in front of the ropes. A large part of this section of the beach is roped off to allow the shorebirds to rest and nest. Sometimes they wander out of the roped off area to feed in the lagoon area and you can see them a little closer. We all sat down on the sand and spent a half hour watching this curlew dig for crabs right in front of us. He wandered pretty close to where we sitting for a while.  He must have pulled up 10 crabs while we sat there. Eventually, he headed over to the other side of the lagoon. I wonder if the crabs pinch the inside of the curlew as it goes down. Those shorebirds must have some tough insides.

Baby birds at Gatorland

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography21 Comments

More like sibling rivalry than brotherly love. Baby great egrets.

Who’s going to win this battle?

“Mom, where’s my fish?”

“All together now, MOM, where’s our fish?”

This tiny one’s beak was bigger than the rest of his body.

I took this from across the lake. I rarely see baby wood storks.

I also took this anhinga nest from across the lake. The middle baby had his head in mom’s beak getting a bite.

A handful of shots from my trip to Gatorland in mid-April.  The great egrets, which are usually born first, are getting big. The ones that I took in mid-March look like full-grown adults now. The baby tricolored herons were just being born when I was there. More on those later.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday  Our World Tuesday Graphic

 

Also, check out more birds at

New birds at Fort Desoto

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

I have seen one other eastern kingbird. But it was from far away while I was kayaking.

My first orchard oriole. This one was female. I have to laugh though. I was getting confused because there were so many birders out this morning and then the above would fly by and they would say “There’s an oriole.”. Then the one below would fly by and someone else would say the same thing. I kept thinking “someone doesn’t know their birds very well.” People keep calling two different birds the same thing. Well, I was the one who didn’t know. The below is the male version. They look so different.

My first male orchard oriole sighting.

My first northern parula.

Not a first bird, night herons are everywhere here. We were quietly sitting in front of Larry’s fountain hoping something tiny and cute would fly up and all we got was this big thing. He looked around like “Why are all these people sitting around in the woods?” He took a couple of drinks and left.

The woods were full of butterflies.

A couple of weekends ago I headed down to Fort Desoto. This was before the big “fall out” weekend but I had heard there were a few migratory birds already there. I headed to the mulberry bush woods and there was already a traffic jam through the trails. Rush hour traffic looking for birds. (And my hubby thinks I’m the only one.) The best part was having a lot of experts around to help with IDs (unless they got any of the above wrong). It saved me some time looking randomly for tiny birds in my Stokes 800 page guide. It was a beautiful morning to be at the park. I spent most of the day there before getting a flat tire on the Howard Franklin bridge on the way home. Triple A came to my rescue.

Looking for baby sandhill cranes – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

My goal for my recent trip to Circle B was to find the baby sandhill cranes that had eluded us the weekend before. As soon as I walked out on the trail, I saw the family far out in the middle of marsh.

The family was moving quickly towards the tree line away from the trail. Both babies were there but I could only get a few quick pictures of one before they were gone in the tall grass.

Hairy or downy woodpecker?

Palm warblers were everywhere that morning.

Yellowlegs walking by a handful of blue winged teals. I love the purple tint on the teal on the far right.  They were keeping an eye on the shorebird.

Typical Florida great blue heron picture. He was sitting high up in a tree on Alligator Alley. He has this determined look on his face.

Early in the morning the sun was coming through the famous dead trees at the beginning of  Marsh Rabbit Run trail. These trees usually have black bellied whistling ducks, woodpeckers or egrets sitting on them. This morning they were empty.

Just a few shots of a recent trip out to the reserve to look for the sandhill crane babies. This was taken several weeks ago so they are probably pretty big by now. I was glad I caught a few seconds of them before they headed out.

For more sky pictures check out Skywatch Friday  Skywatch Friday

A Walk Around Vizcaya in Miami – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn Uncategorized12 Comments

A side view of Vizcaya in South Miami. The gardens were beautiful. While the house was old and interesting, the gardens were more impressive. (Plus, you could not take pictures inside the house.) Vizcaya was built by James Deering between 1914 and 1916. It was his winter home until his heirs donated it to Dade county.

Outside the back door, there was a concrete ship which looked like it was a place to hang out and party. There must have been a bridge leading to it at some point.

Around the concrete ship, you can barely see downtown Miami off in the distance.

Standing outside in the back of the house, I closed my eyes and thought of what it would have been like to live here back then. What, no tv or laptop? Forget it. It was so beautiful and peaceful standing there staring up at the sky. The day we visited was absolutely gorgeous.

One section of the gardens was an orchid garden. So many pretty flowers.

Orchids are so hard to grow. They had them growing outside, mostly in the shade.

If you are ever in south Miami, it’s a great way to spend a few hours.

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday  Skywatch Friday

New bird – green tailed towhee

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment
This is not a green tailed towhee. This is a hispid cotton rat.
My first view of the green tailed towhee.
A close up shot. Look at that rust head!

I had been hearing about the green tailed towhee for a couple of weeks. I didn’t have time before Christmas to swing by the Possum Branch preserve to see it. I had some time New Year’s weekend so I headed out early in the morning. Luckily, there were two other photographers there that had already seen it or I would have never found it. The directions on Bird Brains said follow the path to the canal, take a left and look at the first mulberry tree. He wasn’t there. He was hiding under brush next to the boat ramp. Everyone said if you see the rat eating bird seed, you’re in the right place. We waiting for about an hour until the towhee made an appearance. It was worth the wait even if he didn’t come out from under the brush.  I saw some other cool birds there but more on those later.