forster tern | Dina's Wildlife Adventures

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.

It was a perfect morning for spending some time sitting on a bench at the Oldsmar pier. As I walked out on the pier I noticed a small “fever” of stingrays in the shallow water. I took the above with my phone. They were pretty close and it was cool to watch them slowly swim out in the bay.

In late February the wintering ducks were still there. A few came close to the pier. Looks like they were lesser scaup.

I often see dolphins here but they are usually so far out in the bay that they look like little dots. This morning there were two that came swimming close to the pier. They were feeding and herding the fish close to the shallow part to feed easier. They splashed around for a few minutes before heading back out to the bay.

The dolphins headed straight into the floating ducks and off they went.

An osprey and a Forster’s tern flew close to the pier.

Far across the bay I could see an eagle chasing an osprey. The eagle was after his fish which he stole from the osprey but then took off in the opposite direction.

When I first got to the pier it was clear blue skies but later the clouds moved in.

Dina's Wildlife Adventures

Tag Archives: forster tern

Another avocet sighting

A day at the pier