Eagles and butterflies on my walk.

On August 9, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

Near the end of April I was finishing my walk along the Safety Harbor waterfront and was walking past the damaged pier on the way back to my car when I heard an eagle yelling. I was glad I had my camera in the car as I look over and see an eagle sitting on the pier piling. After quickly taking the above shot the eagle flew off and headed towards an old sign piling.

I didn’t realize there was another eagle eating a fish nearby. The eagle tried to land on the piling and they both took off flying around in a small circle. There are two eagle nests nearby so I’m not sure which these are. Or, maybe they are from different nests and the one was trying to steal the fish?

The eagle with the fish landed back on the piling and the other eagle took off far down the water towards the causeway. The one sat on the piling for a while finishing his fish and the other one did not come back.

Looking right into the sun I could see two yellow crowned night herons walking along the piping on the damaged pier.

I moved farther down the waterfront and was able to watch them hanging out. One hopped down in the water and was shaking his feathers. They eventually flew off together and I’m assuming they are a couple.

Since I had my camera I stopped by Folly Farm to take a quick walk through the butterfly garden. I found lots of little critters on the flowers.

I had forgotten there was a balloon cotton bush plant here. It only blooms in the warmer weather so I wasn’t seeing it on my winter walks here. It’s a type of milkweed and is favored by the monarch butterflies to eat and lay eggs in.

There wasn’t a lot of birds here but I did see a juvenile northern parula and a juvenile titmouse. Lots of young ones around in the spring.

No babies yet.

On September 2, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

It was the end of May and I was out at the Roosevelt Wetlands looking for black necked stilts. I found a few of them here. They are known to nest here in the summer and I was hoping to see some babies but it was a little early for that. There were several nests on the other side of of the lake but none up close to the trail even though there were a lot of stilts along the trail.

There were already older baby moorhens. The juveniles are all gray before they get their black adult feathers.

I thought the above was a boat tailed grackle couple flirting but since the females are all brown I think it was 2 males fighting over territory. Or, both showing off for a nearby female.

A juvenile little blue heron was shedding his white baby feathers for his adult blue feathers. They are really pretty when they have mixed colors like this.

I stopped by Folly Farm on my way home to check on the baby red shoulder hawk. The baby was fully grown and was still hanging around the tall palm tree that the nest was in. I was hoping he would fly off while I was there but after an hour I was ready to head home.

A squirrel was sitting a few branches over from the young hawk. Either he didn’t see the hawk sitting nearby or he was tempting fate.

Another butterfly shot.

A young brown thrasher was hopping around in the bushes.

Things blooming in the butterfly garden.

Butterflies and a baby hawk

On August 15, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants6 Comments

I’m still working on my butterfly shots. The perfect place to do that is Folly Farm in Safety Harbor. There is a great butterfly garden there.

While shooting butterflies I noticed a plant that had a lot of the grasshoppers on them. It was mid-May and these guys are just starting to show up. These Eastern Lubbers will get even bigger and turn orange when they are fully grown. They can eat through plants very quickly.

The red shoulder hawk was sitting on the first tree in front of the butterfly garden.

A few trees over was the baby. The nest was in an open palm tree but the nest was pretty high up. I waited a while hoping one of the parents would come and feed it but that must have happened much earlier that morning.

Before going to Folly Farm I stopped at the mangrove boardwalk near the fishing pier for a quick walk.

It was pretty quiet. Only the usual birds were there including red-winged blackbirds and a yellow crowned night heron.

The sea ox-eye was in full bloom along the boardwalk. Also called sea marigolds, it lives in salt marsh areas. The only other place I remember seeing it is at Fort Desoto.

Locks and butterflies

On June 6, 2024May 25, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I didn’t quite make it out to the waterfront in Safety Harbor for sunrise. The sun was already up but not too high. In early April it was still cool in the mornings so I walked around the boardwalk area before heading to Folly Farm to look for butterflies.

People have been putting locks on the cables on the boardwalk. It’s a cute gesture (locking in your love, etc) but it weighs down the cables and is ruining the boardwalk. They get cut off every so often to keep from doing more damage.

I made a stop at nearby Folly Farm. I was hoping to see some early spring migrating birds but had to settle for the butterfly garden being full of butterflies.

I think this is a saltmarsh caterpillar. They turn into pretty white moths.

There were several pupas on the fence. The first is still new and green. The 2nd was about to be a butterfly. Maybe it was coming out that day? You could really see the monarch in it.

Other little critters. That lizard was really rusty looking.

You can usually find bluebirds here since they have several nesting boxes.

Fun things in Safety Harbor

On April 29, 2024May 12, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

It was a beautiful cool morning in February when I headed out to Folly Farm in Safety Harbor. I didn’t think there would be a lot of birds there but I can usually count on seeing little flying critters.

There was a red shoulder hawk sitting right out in the open in the middle of the butterfly garden. He was all fluffed up and looked a little chilly. A few minutes later I saw him fly over to a palm tree next to the nature center.

I could see a nest and another hawk sitting in the nest.

The other hawk kept flying back and forth with sticks, bringing them to the nest. He found a big one on the roof of the nature center and it took him a while to figure out how to fly it over to the nest. He first tried to pick it up with his beak but he couldn’t balance it so eventually he realized he could take it over in his talons.