A last trip to the beach for the summer.

On September 23, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was early June and I was back out on the beach at Fort Desoto Park early in the morning. It had been 2 weeks since my last trip and I was hoping to find the baby oystercatchers again to see how much they had grown.

The first thing I spotted was a lone roseate spoonbill.

Then I found 2 of the baby oystercatchers. It took me a while to find them since they blend in so well. At first they were sleeping but then one got up and walked around.

I realized there was another area roped off near the lagoon. Closer to the water I could see both oystercatcher parents with the 3rd baby.

After a few minutes later both parents started to take a nap.

The smallest baby was wandering around while the parents slept. At this point I plopped down on the sand to take a break as well.

Eventually the parents and 3rd baby made their way back to the lagoon and joined the other 2 babies. They all walked around for a few minutes and then hunkered down for a nap again so I headed down the beach to see what else I could find.

This is a common sight along this area of the beach. Beach patrols go out and mark off turtle nests. They can usually find them by the drag of the Mom’s weight back to the water and the big hole her body makes as she lays the eggs. All of the nests are recorded and dated and they keep track of when they may hatch. Since they hatch at night and the park is closed at night the babies aren’t usually disturbed trying to get to the water.

Someone’s artwork in the sand.

I was there early enough to have the beach almost to myself. There was a few other photographers there as well.

When I was leaving I found these nanday parakeets near the parking lot.

I didn’t make it back out to the park this summer. It’s just too hot and there hasn’t been much sighted during this time. I’m hoping the white pelicans will be back in October and I’ll make the trip if I hear they are back.

The beach and pier

On September 19, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

My last trip down to Fort Desoto Park in south St. Pete was the first week in June. Every year I tell myself I’m going to take July and August off from hiking with my camera and I usually don’t. This year I did with only a few outings so I’ll eventually be caught up. Above is a black skimmer coming off the water at the north beach.

A few fly-bys on the beach include a great blue heron and a night heron.

I always like to watch the big boats go by, wondering where they are going.

Up on the pier, the snowy egrets and great egrets were busy grabbing bait fish under the pier. They would do a quick swoop down to the water and grab a fish and head back up to the pier to swallow it.

Shaking off after getting wet.

A quick video while hanging out with the birds.

Small boats were getting close to the pier to pull up the bait fish before going fishing.

This guy was not shy and let me take this with my phone.

Early morning with the shorebirds

On August 31, 2024August 20, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

The view walking to the north tip of the beach at Fort Desoto Park. There’s a lagoon on the right and the gulf is far to the left.

Black skimmers were skimming for breakfast along the gulf.

There were rare red knots out on the beach. We only see them briefly when they are making their migration trip from the artic to the southern tip of South America.

A ring billed gull strutting along the beach.

Lots of shorebirds sleeping. These are willets and dowitchers.

I don’t often see dunlins in their breeding feathers. I seem them mostly in the winter when they are a drab creme color. There were a few in their brown and black feathers.

Nicknamed “mermaid necklaces” the above is an egg casing for whelk shells. The female created this casing as she lays her eggs in it. The eggs hatch and turn into shells and the casing dries up and ends up on beaches during storms.

Bonnie was standing out in the middle of the lagoon and the water only came up to her knees. It’s usually pretty shallow here. We were out trying to get pictures of the reddish egret that was feeding in the lagoon. I’m always a little nervous getting that deep in the water with my camera. One bad step in a hole and I could go down with my camera. I think I was only ankle deep when I shot this.

Out on the beach before the tourists.

On August 19, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was early in the morning when I headed to Fort Desoto Park in late May. I had heard there were baby oystercatchers in the lagoon the day before so there was a good chance I could find them somewhere near there. The park opens at 7am and I was over the bridge before the park at 6:55.

I was not alone in my quest. Word gets out fast around this area and there were several other photographers also heading to the lagoon. We didn’t find the oystercatchers there (they are on the move once their babies are born but they couldn’t have gone too far). There were a lot of other great birds in the lagoon though. I snapped a few shots before heading to the north tip. The sun was just coming up over the bushes and you can’t see the lagoon from the other side. There were so many different birds here. Great egrets, a reddish egret, a snowy egret, a tricolored heron, and several spoonbills were all feeding in this swampy corner.

I saw the white morph reddish egret feeding on the way to the north tip. I hadn’t seen this bird since last August and I forget how beautiful and graceful he is.

Boats out on the gulf include a small flat fishing boat and much bigger boats.

I did find the oystercatcher babies but more on them later. Before leaving the park I always stop by the fishing pier to see if I can find anything interesting. This great blue heron had taken a fish from a fisherman and the great egret was trying to steal it from him. The great blue heron swallowed it quickly.

A snowy egret had snatched someone’s bait.

A quick video of the snowy egret being chased by the other birds to steal his snack.

Out on the beach early in the morning before the tourists get here, although it’s a long hike out to the tip and the tourists usually stay close to the parking lot.

Flying across the water

On July 15, 2024September 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was the end of April and the end of spring migration. There would be a few stragglers coming through until mid-May but the majority of the birds had already come through. You would have to hunt pretty hard to find the late ones and it was already so hot. A lot of Cape May warblers were still around. I took so many pictures of these guys this spring since they were so plentiful and not shy.

I only saw one black throated blue warbler on this morning at Fort Desoto Park.

I saw several more blackpoll warblers. The top 2 are males and the bottom shot is a female.

A redstart was high up in the trees.

After walking the trails I headed out on the beach. I had not gotten to the park in time for sunrise this morning. The terns were still active flying around with fish.

The couple above was flirting and the male had brought the female a fish (their version of buying her dinner or in this case breakfast). She walked around him a few times with it and then gulped it down.

He was ready to mate but she was playing hard to get. They flew off so I’m not sure what happened.

It was windy this morning and before leaving I stopped at the east beach turnaround to watch the kiteboarders for a few minutes. It’s always fun to watch them flying across the water. They make it look so easy but it’s really hard to keep that kite up and stay on the water. I took the above with my camera and zoomed in.

I took these 2 with my phone so you can see how far away they are. A lot of them just getting started near the shore. It’s hard to get them all in one shot since they are all spread out across the water.

Almost the end of spring migration

On July 13, 2024July 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park near the end of April to look for migrating birds. This one was easy to find. I heard the Chuck-will’s-widow was near the bay pier. She had been there for several days and people thought she was nesting since she spent most of her time on the ground. They are not rare for the area but they are hardly ever seen. You can see how she blends into the ground. The area where she was hanging out was all roped off so you could see her from a distance. This was my 2nd sighting of one. The first was at the Dry Tortugas on a trip to Key West several years ago. I zoomed in on the 2nd picture because she had the most amazing whiskers across her face. She disappeared after about 2 weeks. She probably thought the area was too busy.

The nearby osprey nest was busy. I walked up right as Mom was feeding the babies.

I saw a lot of juvenile indigo buntings near the fountain. I think the 2nd shot is a female.

More Cape May warblers. They were everywhere this spring. The top 2 are males and the bottom 2 are females.

This was my first time this spring seeing a blackpoll warbler. They usually come through here in the spring but I didn’t see this one until almost the end of migration.

A catbird sits on top of the fountain.

The nanday parakeets were in their usual spots along the east beach trails. This one was eating the mangrove grapes.

I don’t often see pileated woodpeckers here although I hear them along the trails. This one was digging something juicy out of the soft wood.

Flirting in the sunrise

On July 11, 2024September 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I made so many trips to Fort Desoto Park, an hour away, in April and early May for spring migration. This park is where you can get the most bang for your buck to see birds (depending on what you are looking for). It’s 5 dollars to get in but I bought a seasonal pass since I knew I would be coming here a lot for a few months and it gets me into several other parks as well. In late April I headed back again. This time I wasn’t expecting anything new but you don’t know if you don’t go.

My first stop was the east beach area since this has been where the best birds have been this spring. It was just after 7am when I got out to the beach.

After snapping a few sunrise pictures and before heading to the trails I took a few minutes to see what was going on where the terns have been hanging out. There was a lot of sandwich terns this morning. They are a little smaller than the royal terns and have a small yellow tip on their black beaks. I caught one couple starting to mate but she didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

Many of the royal terns were flirting.

One couple started mating. After about 30 seconds she tried to throw him off but he was persistent.

It was a busy morning with a lot of migrating birds but more on those later. I stopped by the fishing pier before leaving and caught this boat coming into the bay.

Two lifers on the same morning

On June 27, 2024July 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

In mid-April I made another trip down to Fort Desoto to look for migrating birds. This time I was looking for a specific bird and I got to the park right when it opened at 7am and went straight to East Beach. The sun was just coming up near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I had to take a quick shot while I was walking down the beach trail with several other people looking for the same bird.

A very rare piratic flycatcher had been seen on the trail for 2 days in a row. I made it down to the park on the 3rd morning not expecting much. This bird migrates from south Mexico to central America and this is the only one that we know of to have been in Florida (a few sighting have happened in Texas). There were 4 of us staring in the bushes where it was seen the afternoon before. The sun had not come up over the bushes yet but when we saw movement I snapped, not sure if it would be the only time I saw it since it was a lifer for me.

About a half hour later it started to move around in the top of the bushes and we got better views. It moved around from the beach trail to the privet trail and we all kept walking back and forth trying to keep up with it. A little later a large crowd of birders had come to see it so after getting a ton of shots I moved on. The above were taken with my 400mm lens and extremely cropped so we were pretty far away.

Near the flycatcher an osprey was trying to eat his breakfast and didn’t seem to mind the crowd passing by.

As I was walking to my car I saw some people staring up in a tree and walked over to see my first warbling vireo. Another bird that’s not supposed to be in Florida and should be in the western part of the country. He looks a little like a red eyed vireo but the accents on his face aren’t as pronounced.

I passed a young male orchard oriole that had not gotten his brown/rust feathers yet.

Before leaving the park I saw a few other migrating birds including a female hooded warbler and a scarlet tanager.

This pretty box turtle was right off the trail.

More sunrise and birds

On June 20, 2024July 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Another week in April and another trip down to Fort Desoto Park early in the morning. The beach looks deserted here but there were 20-30 people nearby looking in the bushes for birds.

When I walked out on the beach to get the sunrise picture I noticed a flock of royal terns along the water. It looked like they were pairing up. The males were bringing in fish to give to the ladies and some pairs were doing their mating dance. I didn’t see any actually mating on this morning.

The nanday parakeets were busy in their usual spot along the dead trees on the beach trail.

There wasn’t a lot of migrating birds this morning but I did manage to find a few. An indigo bunting was resting in the mangroves.

Prairie warblers were plentiful this migration.

A male orchard oriole high up in the tree.

We saw this plant with red fruit on it along one of the wooded trails. I don’t remember seeing it before. I think it’s an elliptica yellowwood. Not a Florida native plant but it was pretty. The park has been killing or pulling out all of the non-native plants in the park but they must have missed this one.

I stopped by the East Beach turnaround to look for shorebirds. It was quiet here as the sun was high up at this point.

A cargo ship goes by.

It was windy by the time I was taking my walk on the fishing pier before leaving.

Migration has started

On June 10, 2024July 13, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Spring migration was just starting in early April (although a few birds have trickled through since mid-March) so I was up before sunrise and made it down to Fort Desoto just as the sun was coming up (the park doesn’t open until 7am so right now we can’t get in before that). I took this on the bridge before the park.

I went straight to East Beach since I heard there was some birds on the trails at that part of the park. Before heading down the trail I stopped on the beach to catch the sun coming up over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I took all of these with my phone. I figured even if I didn’t see a lot of birds I at least saw an amazing sunrise.

A wood thrush was easy to find on the ground.

Black and white warblers were all over the park.

A rose breasted grosbeak was eating a berry but stayed pretty hidden.

There was a prothonotary warbler right on the trail and he was not shy. He popped out of the bushes and landed right in front of me and seemed to wait for me to take his picture.

My 2nd ever worm eating warbler (the first was in my backyard in 2022). He was a little shy and I waited a while for him to come out in the open.

A prairie warbler.

Hooded warblers were all over the park and it’s usual for them to be the first migrating birds we see here.

I got a brief glimpse of a Kentucky warbler. He was shy and we looked for him for a long time. He looks a lot like the hooded warbler but he has black under his eye instead of under his chin. His head has bumps on it as well so it looks like it’s textured.

I stopped at the gulf fishing pier before leaving and found these two female red breasted mergansers hanging out in front of the stones along the wall.

It’s always fun when spring migration is in full swing although a little exhausting. Getting up early and running around looking for new birds. No rest until mid-May. I always see lots of old birding friends and make some new ones during this time. People in the area thought this spring’s migration was a bit of a dud but I thought it great and saw 5 new birds. More on those later.