Tag: grackle

Around the yard in December

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

The squirrels were getting frisky in the backyard in mid-December. Don’t they know it’s not mating season? Actually early December is the start of their winter mating season so I may be seeing some tiny ones soon. Just what we need, more squirrels digging up the backyard.

It was good to see that the neighborhood turkeys survived Thanksgiving as they cruised through our backyard. There is almost no turkey hunting in Pinellas county due to the density and urban nature of the area and there are no public hunting areas so these turkeys are generally safe in our neighborhood with the exception of being hit by a car.

A juvenile little blue heron looking for a snack (lizard) along the sidewalk to our front door.

I hate it when the grackles come to the feeder (which isn’t often) but they are pretty.

Black bellied whistling ducks in the rain. I was standing outside with a big golf umbrella watching them as they found a little puddle to drink from.

I was adding some red lights to the back along the roof when this guy fell down. I’m glad he didn’t land on me because neighbors from many streets over would have heard me scream. I know they are out there but he caught me by surprise.

Blooming in the front yard in December.

Brett and I took the long way around the neighborhood after dinner out to see some lights. We saw a lot of deer out feeding.

This is not a great video since it took Brett a while to stop and I was filming from the moving car but the coyote couple passed by us on the sidewalk. The green eyes glowing belongs to the black coyote that almost blends in. It was really cool to see them in the dark but they kept moving fast.

SkyWatch Friday

A sunny start to December

On By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights4 Comments

In early December Brett and I were back at Davis Islands for another afternoon walk. We were soaking up the cooler sunny weather.

It was a busy sailboat day and we sat for a while watching the boats go in and out of the yacht basin.

We found the perfect bench to sit and look for birds and dolphins.

This male grackle was showing off his pretty colors in the sun.

We also had a nice view of downtown Tampa from our bench.

SkyWatch Friday

Cute little ones in the woods

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

It was late May in the woods in the park near my house. Early in the morning I found a barred owl sleeping on a tree close to the boardwalk. You couldn’t miss her. I snapped a quick shot and kept going.

As I got a little farther a young one was sitting on a tree, also close to the boardwalk. The baby was busy preening but stopped for a second and stared at me.

I made my way to the end of the boardwalk and turned around. When I was coming back the parent owl was just waking up. Again, I snapped a quick shot and kept going since people were starting to crowd up on the boardwalk and get pictures with their phones.

Deep in the reeds along the lake a juvenile grackle was begging for Mom to feed her.

I found one of the frogs again.

As I was watching the frog a few birds went by including the tricolored heron in the first shots and the limpkin in the last shot. I was hoping they didn’t get the frog.

A juvenile limpkin was getting a snail snack from Mom.

Mom fed this young one several times. The baby looks like Mom but is much smaller. They eat a lot of apple snails that grow in abundance here.

An osprey flies by with a fish.

The summer rains hadn’t started and the swamp area was dried up. There is usually a pond here.

Saturday's Critters

A hot quiet walk at Roosevelt Wetlands

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

In early May I made my last trip out to the Roosevelt Wetlands for the summer. There is no shade here and not many critters during the dead of summer. I was standing near the parking area and could see across the lake to the waste plant mountain. All of a sudden tons of birds took off across the open mound. I’m not sure what scared them, mostly gulls and terns. There’s a lot of hawks in the area and I think most of the eagles are gone for the summer.

Cattails along the trail.

After staring into the reeds for a while I saw a bittern’s head pop up. He stayed hidden after he saw me.

Little critters along the trail.

A bunny hops across the trail, trying to hide fast before I pass him.

Color along the trail in the form of tickseed.

I saw a purple gallinule heading into the reeds and noticed a baby was right behind her. I was able to get a quick shot before the baby disappeared.

A female grackle posing. When I cropped this up I noticed the ladybug on the bottom right.

Standing near the waste plant, looking across the lake to the parking area. It’s a long walk back when it gets hot and the wind blows from the waste plant area.

A little blue heron flies by.

The northern harriers and winter ducks have all gone north for the summer. There was no sign of baby black necked stilts which is the highlight of late spring. Critter traffic comes to a halt through August so I took a long break from visiting.

SkyWatch Friday

 

A morning walk at Chesnut Park

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

In mid-April I was out for a walk at Chesnut Park early in the morning. I parked my car and was walking towards the trail and these two ladies came cruising over the bridge and onto the trail I was heading for. I followed them to the boardwalk and they went into the woods.

I saw 2 young barred owls sitting in the same tree. The one on the far left kept his back to me the entire time. The one on the right was leaning over, almost upside down. I think that was how he was sleeping. I’m not sure how comfortable that is.

Mom was sleeping in a nearby tree.

A wintering coot that hadn’t left yet was eating some grass from the lake.

Looking out on one of the docks I caught sight of two baby wood ducks. They were swimming quickly towards the reeds.

Then I realized there was a family of wood ducks up against the reeds. They floated just outside the reeds for a while and then headed back into hiding.

The above was taken with my phone. This is where the baby ducks were hiding.

Tree swallows were flying around overhead.

A grackle was yelling at something, something they do often.

Dragonflies were everywhere.

The lake was calm and quiet.

Saturday's Critters

 

White pelican close ups

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I made it back to Crescent Lake Park near downtown St. Pete in mid-January. I remembered to bring my camera with me this time because I was pretty sure the white pelicans were still there. They wouldn’t stay much longer if the weather warmed up.

A handful were swimming around in the middle of the lake.

A lot of them were still hanging out under the big banyan tree at one corner of the lake where the pipes come out.  I’m assuming because of the shade from the tree (although it was cloudy the morning I was there) and the fact that the tree area is fenced off to keep people off the damaged old historic tree so there wouldn’t be any people letting their dogs get close to the bank.

A cormorant flies by.

Eventually most of the pelicans made their way out to the middle of the lake.

A ring-neck duck came close to the edge.

A ring billed gull was also close.

Two male grackles were having a conversation on the ball field sign. They might have been fighting over a lady or both showing off for one.

Saturday's Critters

Winter birds and the moon

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I could still see the moon when I was at Chesnut Park in late October early in the morning. Only the front part of the park was open due to the hurricanes we recently had.

It was quiet but I managed to find a few interesting birds (although nothing new). Catbirds are very common in the winter but the white eyed vireo and the male common yellowthroat are a little bit harder to find.

The grackle was singing in the sun, showing off his beautiful feathers.

The park is full of squirrels sometimes being cute.

Two weeks later the rest of the park opened and I was happy to be walking on the back boardwalk again. The trees looked a little barer and apart from the tons of fallen logs in the swamp the park looked the same. The water levels in the park were still high but it stays high coming off the rainy summer anyway.

I could still see the partial moon high over the lake.

The views around the lake were a lot clearer with the storms moving out a lot of the bushes and reeds that had grown up high along the edges.

SkyWatch Friday

Up close with a manatee

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, zoo animals9 Comments

You can pay a lot of money and go swimming where the manatees hang out and maybe see them swim by (I have never done it) or you can go to Zoo Tampa and see them really up close without getting wet. Although, I have had one swim within a few feet of me when I was out past the sandbar at Fort Desoto Park. It was feeding time when I visited the zoo in late April. This lady was eating right in front of the window.

The zoo has an amazing manatee hospital. All of these manatees came in as injured or sick ones and the zoo rehabilitates them and releases them once they are better. I saw a release that the zoo did in 2022 and you can read about it here. You can read more about their manatee center here.

It was funny to watch the turtle pick the algae off the manatee.

I got to see the baby pygmy hippo that was not quite a month old.

Now that’s a big lizard!

The red tailed guenons are my favorite primates. They are so animated.

Flamingos on alert.

I walked through the lorikeet aviary and caught these 2 flirting.

A wild baby grackle was looking for bugs but found a leaf.

The wild little blue herons nest in the trees over the alligator exhibit. There were a lot of nests far in the back but only one near the fence. The babies were almost fully grown but not ready to fly yet.

I saw a tricolored heron sitting in the cypress tree across the exhibit.

One tree over I could hear the babies making a loud clacking noise. They were waiting for Mom to regurgitate her food and come over and feed them. They have the craziest looks when they are begging.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

The annual rookery trip

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

In early April I made my annual trip to north Tampa to visit the bird rookery in the middle of a small pond. The first thing I noticed was the above dirty wood stork. Maybe he had just taken a bath in a muddy spot.

I could barely see these baby wood storks deep in the bushes. This was the only wood stork nest with babies I could see on this morning. It feels late this year.  By late March last year the rookery had tons of baby storks.

A lot of great egrets were still busy flirting and working on their nests. Most of them had their green breeding feathers around their eyes and those pretty wispy flirting feathers.

There was one nest with a teeny baby great egret. It looked to be a day or two old.

Another nest had a bigger baby great egret that was begging for food.

There were a lot of glossy ibis but they nest in the far back and we can’t see them from the street. We have to wait until the babies are big enough to fly around the rookery.

A female grackle sitting pretty on the bush.

Every year it feels like there are less and less birds nesting here. The rookery island looks the same size. Have they moved on somewhere else or are there truly less birds?  I made another trip in early May but more on that later.

my Sunday snapshot

 

A two park morning

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I hadn’t been to Chesnut Park in north Pinellas county in at least 3 months (even though it’s 10 minutes from my house). I usually see a lot of the same things in my neighborhood so I haven’t been going as much as I used to. I haven’t seen any barred owls in my neighborhood and I heard there was a pair very visible on the boardwalk at the park so I headed over early one morning. I didn’t have to look hard to find it. There was a line of people trying to get pictures of it with their phones since it was sitting so close to the boardwalk. I snapped a few shots with my camera and left. The above are cropped up.

There are purple gallinules that hang around near the dock over the big lake but most of the time they are far away. On this morning there was one feeding on spatterdock right in front of the dock. He was putting on quite a show.

Wood ducks are usually here as well but I didn’t see any around the dock until I saw the above flying across the lake.

I made a stop at the bathroom and ran into some deer.

I made a quick stop at nearby Possum Branch Preserve before going home. It was really quiet here. I could smell the pink/purple weeds all around the preserve that had just started blooming. It has many names: sweetscent, camphorweed, sourbush or saltmarsh fleabane. We just call it the smelly pink weeds.

It was void of birds with the exception of a few usuals including the great blue heron and common grackle (which is really pretty when the sun hits his feathers).

There was a big one napping along the bank of the small pond. I gave him plenty of space so this is super cropped up. But, if you are not paying attention you could be surprised walking around that corner. I had seen him from the other side of the pond so I knew his was there.