The annual rookery trip

On June 15, 2024July 13, 2024 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.

A two park morning

On June 8, 2024June 5, 2024 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.

The usual suspects on a cold morning.

On April 11, 2024April 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Mr. Grumpy (great blue heron) greeted me when I got to the Largo Nature Preserve in early January. It was chilly so that might have been why he was fluffed up.

Blue-gray gnatcatchers were everywhere.

A limpkin was across the pond and had a snack.

The pied grebes were still being cute. I don’t often see 2 together.

It looked like they were having a spat over something.

A little later I saw one of them with a big crawfish.

The pretty grackle was yelling at me for being on his boardwalk.

I found an alligator in a corner of the pond. The first shot up close is with my camera and the 2nd one is with my phone so I wasn’t too close. Plus, I was on the boardwalk.

The sun was trying to come out as I walked around the boardwalk. It was a little chilly this morning and I was thinking I might not find too much but you never know.

A cold winter morning in St. Pete.

On March 25, 2024April 30, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

European starlings get no respect here. They are treated like annoying pigeons. They are an invasive species here in the United States but they are pretty when the sun hits them just right. I found this one alone at Crescent Lake Park in St. Pete. I stopped for a quick walk and to see if the white pelicans were still there.

This wood stork was feeding right in front of me. I did find the white pelicans and took a ton of shots of them feeding but more on them later.

After a walk around the lake I drove 10 minutes over to the North Shore Park on the bay. As soon as I got out of my car I heard the monk parakeets feeding on the ground in the parking lot.

There were very few birds on the little beach in front of the park.

The tide was really low and this guy was having the best time chasing after a big stick.

A grackle was calling for his girlfriend.

It looks like it was a quiet morning from this point of view but behind me there were tons of people walking, jogging and biking on the wide sidewalk that runs along the park. It was a cold morning so there wasn’t anyone out on the beach.

My favorite 5 tall palm trees on the beach at the park. The sky was clearing up.

The parking lot has several orchid trees that were in full bloom. I was getting in my car when I heard a big flock of nanday parakeets fly into the one right next to my car. I got out and shot the above before they all took off again.

Floating potatoes on my walk

On October 14, 2023October 7, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals2 Comments

I went for a walk in Safety Harbor and stopped by the fishing pier before heading home. I immediately spotted a manatee swimming away from the pier. She had some interesting boat strike marks on her back. I was thinking she was heading for the boat channel so I thought this would be the only sighting.

A grackle with a snack that he stole from the garbage can is a regular sight here.

Pelicans were flying around. It looked like they were having a discussion over who got the best spot on the sign. After snapping the above I looked down and saw the below.

The manatee had come back around and got right under the pier. It had some friends as well. There were 4 swimming around this particular morning. The first 3 were taken with my phone. They do look like floating potatoes from up on the pier.

They eventually started swimming away from the pier but not before one of them slapped the water with his tail.

One of them stopped and started floating on his back. I don’t see this often.

Two spotted eagle rays came close to the pier.

At the piers

On May 18, 2023May 11, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

This is something you don’t see everyday in mid-March. That water was a little chilly, even with a short wetsuit. I was out for a short walk on the Oldsmar pier and saw this guy. It looked like fun but you really need some heavy upper body strength to hold that big sail up. Once he got up he went flying by and across the bay.

It was a quiet morning with only a few willets flying around so I headed over to the Dunedin marina.

These grackles were happily singing the morning away.

The usual beautiful scene from the marina.

The only birds I saw were willets and starlings on the little grassy area.

Also, house sparrows. They were busy taking dirt baths.

Everyday life at the marina

On February 9, 2023January 30, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I was back at the Dunedin marina in late December for a quick walk (can you tell this is one of my favorite places to walk?). That damaged abandoned boat is still stuck to the channel marker. You can see where it’s cut into the boat. It’s a great place for birds to rest and I caught a green heron sitting on it the morning I was there.

A great egret was fishing through the little hole around the floating piling. I kept seeing him sticking his head down thinking he couldn’t catch even a tiny fish that way but he sure did.

A little blue heron was creeping around the dock, also looking for fish.

There’s always a lot of pelicans around the marina.

I caught this grackle eating some kind of seeds.

I saw this osprey flying across the marina with some sticks and moss in his talons. It’s the start of nesting season for osprey so I thought he was heading to one of the 2 nests in the marina parking lot. He flew around with it for a while. Then it looks like he’s going to land on a light pole that didn’t already have a nest and I’m thinking “What is he doing?”. He did land but then took off across the marina and headed to the nest on a pole at the other end of the marina.

There’s a nest high up in a tree near the boat ramp and another nest across from it on top of a pole. There’s always a lot of osprey flying around so they guard them pretty well during nesting season.

Far out in the water I could see a dolphin coming up every few minutes. I was bummed he didn’t come close to the pier.

More crazy birds at the rookery

On August 9, 2022August 2, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

A juvenile night heron sits alone at the front of the rookery. He’s been there on my last 2 visits. They nest deep in the bushes so I can’t see them as little babies.

A snowy egret still flirting.

The cormorants and anhingas nest high up inthe cypress trees so it’s a little harder to see those young babies. As they get older the bigger babies end up down on the rookery and Mom feeds them there. The top one is a cormorant. They have orange curved beaks and hook their fish. The middle shot are both anhingas (male on the left in all black and the female on the right has a brown chest and neck). They have pointed beaks and stab their fish. The juveniles with the great egret in the bottom shot are both anhingas.

A female grackle getting some bugs. They also nest deep in the bushes.

A wood stork getting a drink in the pond.

I saw a tricolored heron fly over to the top of a tree away from the rookery. She’s got food in her beak and she’s trying to get her young one to fly over to be fed. She was yelling at the baby to fly across the pond to her to get food instead of her bringing it to the baby.

The baby eventually flew over and got his meal.

All of the tricolored heron babies that I saw were almost fully grown. They all had their adult colors in their feathers but they still had those baby spikes on the top of their heads and were still squawking for food.

Across the bay

On September 23, 2021August 29, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Tampa bay sights7 Comments

The view of downtown Tampa from Ballast Point Park. It wasn’t that early in the morning in the beginning of August when I stopped by. I had been out running errands and had my camera in the car so I stopped for a quick walk on the fishing pier. The park sits down in south Tampa and from the pier you can see across to downtown.

There wasn’t many birds around the pier but I caught this scruffy young grackle with a snack left over from some bait fish.

I caught this “fever’ of stingrays cruising by the pier.

The views from across the bay include the Tampa port, the electric plant over in Apollo Beach, the downtown skyline and some buildings going up on Bayshore Boulevard.

I caught this squirrel with a snack in the parking lot next to my car.

One last snap of Tampa through the trees (this was taken with my phone so you can see how far away I was).

Another beautiful morning at the beach

On July 26, 2021March 11, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

A cute little black bellied plover was busy looking for food.

Standing on the pier, I could see this dog catching an orange frisbee way down at the other end of dog beach. He caught it every time. He was having a blast.

It was a good morning for the dolphin show at the gulf pier at Fort Desoto. The water was clear and calm and the dolphins were swimming close to it.

I headed up to the top of the fort to see if there were any birds hanging around the agave plants. I only saw a grackle. The little green huts cover the air vents in the fort underneath. I always expect to see little hobbits running around and living in them.

The view from the top of the fort.

Looking in the other direction, down towards the beach, you could see the people coming in for the day. This was around 10am so you know it’s going to be crowded by noon. It really is a little piece of paradise (Shhh, don’t tell anyone!).