A chilly morning at Fort Desoto

Posted on April 29, 2021 by dinajohnston

“I caught one this big” said the osprey as he landed on his nest.

Actually, he was bringing in sticks to spruce up the nest.

It’s amazing what you see when you are standing around waiting for baby birds to wake up. This Prairie warbler flew right in front of me.

Turning around, the coast guard was sitting right off the beach.

I eventually got tired of waiting for the baby birds to wake up and headed over to North beach to see what was over there (I don’t have a lot of attention span and was also trying to get some exercise so I needed to keep walking). All of the usual birds were there.

On the fishing pier, Harry the hybrid (great blue heron x great egret) was having a scratch.

It was a beautiful morning in late February.

Not many people out early in the morning (just us photogs) and it was a little chilly.

A quiet slow morning in September

Posted on November 3, 2020 by dinajohnston

Back in mid-September when things were quiet at Fort Desoto, I stopped by the pier to see if there were any dolphins swimming around. There wasn’t any dolphins this morning but the pelicans were diving for fish and the gulls were driving them crazy trying to steal a fish from them.

Harry, the usual great blue heron/great egret hybrid, was hanging out on the roof on the pier panting in the heat.

Not many ships passing by this morning.

Busy beach in August.

Posted on September 28, 2020 by dinajohnston

The royal terns were having a feeding frenzy at Fort Desoto in early August. The parents were busy trying to keep the juvenile ones fed.

I found another Harry the hybrid (great blue heron and great egret) at the north beach lagoon. I had heard there were two hybrids at the park but I had only seen one at the fishing pier. This one has more beige and grey than the one at the pier which is more white.

Birds cruising by at the north spit. You can see the boats far off at the tip of the spit already anchoring to party for the day.

Flowers near the parking lot.

Lots of activity going on around the park. It was going to be a busy afternoon.

Bait fish thieves

Posted on September 5, 2020 by dinajohnston

What were all of these snowy egret doing on the roof of the shelter at the fishing pier at Fort Desoto?

They were waiting for some clueless guy pulling up bait fish and dumping it on the pier before putting it in his bucket. The guy dumped out the fish and then turned his back on the fish to get something out of his cart before he was going to put the bait fish in his bucket. The birds swooped down and had a feast before he realized what was going on and scared them away. There was still plenty of fish left but it was funny to watch.

After the snowy egrets left, Harry, the hybrid great blue heron and great egret, decided to swoop down and grab a fish before they were all picked up.

Herons on the fishing pier.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by dinajohnston

The beautiful and rare great blue heron/great egret hybrid that lives at Fort Desoto. Harry (as I call him) can usually be found at the gulf fishing pier. In the spring during mating season his face turns blue.