A new duck and the usual

On July 20, 2024July 12, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

It was early May and I was heading back to Fort Desoto Park. The sun was just coming up as I crossed the Bayside Bridge before heading into downtown St. Pete.

Right before the park there is a big pond that sits on the road with houses on the back side. Frigatebirds spend summers here and sleep on the big mangrove islands behind these houses. You can’t see where they sleep from the road. You would need a kayak and be out on the water before daylight to see them leaving their roost. But, if you catch the timing right you can see them flying over the big pond early in the morning getting a drink of water before cruising around for the day. It’s rare to see them upclose so I pulled over and got out the car and spend a few minutes watching them swoop down to the pond. They didn’t stay long and headed out over the bay.

As I watched them soaring I realized the moon was still up.

There wasn’t a lot of migrating birds on the trail so I went to the fishing pier to see if there was anything interesting. I was just expecting a few dolphins but I got a lifer instead. There was a surf scoter spotted a few months back in south St. Pete along the bay but you needed a scope to see it and it was not there all of the time so I didn’t even try to find it. There was one spotted in Safety Harbor a few years back but I couldn’t find it after several trips. On this morning there was a female one floating right along the pier. It wasn’t hanging around but was swimming by and I was able to snap some shots of it as it made it’s way past the pier and around the island.

A ruddy turnstone was starting to get his pretty breeding feathers in.

There were a few dolphins around the pier as usual.

Someone had caught a tiny shark.

Beautiful morning on the pier

On March 2, 2024February 18, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

After taking a zillion pictures of the white pelicans I headed over to the fishing pier before going home. You never know what you might find in that area, The egrets were hanging out on the roof of the shelters, always waiting for a bait fish to be dropped or ignored.

Some of the snowy egrets were doing the work to get their own meals. Heading down to the water and grabbing it themselves since the water was full of them this morning.

It was a little windy up there.

If the snowy egret brought his catch back to the shelter roof he was going to have to fight off the other egrets.

A cormorant scratching his head.

The frigatebirds were cruising low over the pier.

Not a lot of boat traffic out this morning.

Typical birds at the fishing pier

On August 10, 2021July 10, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I headed out for a walk at Fort Desoto on a Saturday morning in early June. It was a nice morning out but only the usual birds were at the pier. It’s always fun to see the prehistoric looking pelicans.

You can usually see osprey up close on the pier.

The snowy egrets were fighting over the bait fish that the fisherman were pulling up in their nets. When the fishermen shake out the bait fish into their buckets, a few fish usually land on the pier and the egrets squabble over them and occasionally a great blue heron gets in on the fight.

On the way home I saw a few frigatebirds cruising over the pond outside of the park. Of course I pulled over and got a few shots as they cruised by.

Spring migration is becoming a bust

On June 10, 2021May 31, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

I was heading down to Fort Desoto in mid-April hoping to see some migrating songbirds as they stop over for a rest before heading north for the summer. It had rained days earlier and the day after the rain had some good fall out but I had to work that day. There might have been some stragglers still hanging out so I was hopeful. On the way into the park I saw some frigatebirds cruising along a pond so I pulled over and shot these as they kept going.

After walking around the usual spots for the birds for several hours, this is what I got. A lone bright yellow house finch was hanging around the bird feeder at the ranger’s house. I usually only see red house finches so the yellow threw me off.

I also found a black and white warbler but those are pretty common here.

I could at least enjoy the view as I was walking around. Not a bad spot to spend the morning out.

All of these dead trees are invasive Australian pine trees so the park killed them off to return the park to it’s natural state. It’s a tough pill to swallow when these trees use to be filled with migrating birds for so many years. I’m not sure if that is why we’ve seen less birds in the park for the last two years.

Not that early for sunrise

On January 7, 2021December 16, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Sunrise at East Beach at Fort Desoto. No, I wasn’t up that early. This was in late October before the time changed so it was right before 7:30. There was a small cloud right above the bridge that kept the sun from being clear but it was still a great sky.

As I stood there watching the sun come up, I could see the frigatebirds starting to circle high up in the sky. They were coming from across the bay and then ended up right over my head.