Birds of prey on the nest at Honeymoon Island

On April 8, 2013April 8, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography14 Comments

Walking the trail at Honeymoon Island, this is a common sight. The trail is full of osprey sitting on nests. Osprey raise their babies a little later than eagles and owls. Most of the eagle and owl babies in the area are almost grown up and the osprey were just starting to lay eggs when I walked the trail in mid-February.

Another common sight, both parents on the nest. This couple might not have eggs yet. The osprey on the left had a fish under his foot.

I saw the above great horned owl before I saw the nest. She was sitting in a branch right over the trail.

The nest is right on the trail so you can’t miss it. I saw two baby owls looking down.

I don’t know what they were looking at here. Must have been a squirrel running around.

“What are you looking up at?” said the older owl. He was probably watching an osprey fly by.

As I was standing there watching the baby owls, the above landed on a branch right over my head. The trail is full of these red-bellied woodpeckers.

This was the same dark drizzly morning I saw the red breasted mergansers. Not too far from the parking lot is the owl nest. Everyone walking the trail can see the babies peeking out. I had heard they were there but didn’t make it out until they were almost grown. They looked very curious. Staring at anything that moved. The weather kept most people home so it was a quiet morning. Not many other birds out though. Tons of osprey and woodpeckers. I’m going to try to back there to see some osprey babies.

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Baby owls and some ibis on a sunny morning – Skywatch Friday

On March 28, 2013March 7, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography13 Comments

One baby was facing me and the other one (on the right) was turned around.

The older baby (on the left) was stretching her wings.

This nest is so tiny. They were up against each other the whole morning. Mom was close by on an upper branch.

Out on the beach, ibis were digging for breakfast.

Double dipping. An ibis and a great egret were feeding together.

I found the above birds at the north beach marsh. The tide was really low this morning.

It was another perfect morning in late February.

The beach was quiet. The water was calm.

Lots of shells on the beach.

By now the baby owls at Fort Desoto are flying around from branch to branch. I heard that the park ranger has taken down the orange fencing that went around the area where the nest was which means they have fledged. They grow up so fast. I think they’ll still stay in the area for a couple of months so I’ll look for them next time I’m at the park. There weren’t many other birds at the park. It was cool and windy so the north beach was lacking in shorebirds. I could only find a few ibis and great egrets that morning. Spring break has begun and the beach will become a different place, full of loud kids chasing birds. Can’t wait.

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Saw an otter eating while checking on an owl

On January 28, 2013January 29, 2013 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography24 Comments

I stopped by a local park to see if the great horned owl was nesting yet. There she was looking like she’s been sleeping for a while.

The park was pretty quiet except for the normal ~~mallards~~ mottled ducks (thanks to Wally for the correct ID. We get a lot more mallards than mottled here.)

And boring old warblers.

I saw this cormorant swimming way too close to the alligator.

Then I heard some commotion in the reeds near me and saw an otter with a fish. He saw me looking at him and moved around to the other side of the reeds where I couldn’t see him.

I moved around to the other end of the boardwalk and was able to see him but he was into the sun. He chowed down on that big fish for a few minutes before taking off.

Just a few things on my walk around a small park recently on a Saturday morning. I’ve seen otters there before but usually down in a little creek and they don’t hang around for a second. The above was out in the open lake but wanted to eat his fish in peace. After that last shot, he disappeared. I looked for him for a while but no sign of him again. I’m keeping my eye on that owl. Last year she had two babies so hopefully I’ll be able to watch more babies grow up this year.

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Saying goodbye to grown up baby owls

On March 26, 2012March 27, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography19 Comments

I found one of the baby owls high up in the tree scratching an itch.

The older sibling was even higher up sleeping. I found him through an opening in the branches.

Wood duck floating down the river by the owl tree.

A hawk flies by.

Butterflies and flowers are now everywhere.

After my trip to Fort Desoto to see the new owl family, I decided to stop by Kapok Park on the way home to see the two baby owls there one last time. I had heard they were flying around from branch to branch and really hard to find now that they have left the nest. Soon they’ll leave the park for good. I got there hoping to find them one last time. I kept looking high up in the tree and finally found the first one when it moved to scratch. I decided to walk around the boardwalk for a while and walking back I saw the other owl high up through the branches sitting in the sun. They grow up so fast. Now that they are grown up I’ll probably have the park all to myself. Just me, the dog walkers and joggers. There’s still a lot of great stuff there even without the owls. Now that it’s light after work, I’ll head there for a walk before heading home often.

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Great horned owl family #2

On March 25, 2012March 21, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Mom sleeping wedge into the tree. I stood there with several other people for about a half hour.

Finally, she starts to move around and we see a white speck!

Mom and baby are trying to stretch and move around in this tiny spot.

Mom scoots up and we get a good view of baby. It looks like there’s something wrong with one of baby’s eyes.

Baby sits by itself but mom looks down on it keeping watch.

This is the owl family from Fort Desoto. I got there when the owl was about 10-12 days old. I was excited to see it still white and fuzzy. Early in the morning while it still felt a little cold, the mom was sleeping and hiding the baby. As the morning warmed up, they both started to move around. This is a tiny nest. I won’t sugar-coat it. There were two babies born but within a week one of the babies was found dead on the ground by a park ranger or volunteer early in the morning. It was after a bad storm had moved through so the baby could have fallen or been blown out. Since the nest sits right on one of the paths that lead from the parking lot to the beach, the park roped off a good part of the area. These were taken two weeks ago so by now the baby is pretty big. I have seen more recent pictures of it and the eye looks okay now so whatever was wrong seemed to have healed quickly.

More of the baby owls

On February 15, 2012February 14, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

"Oh look, that girl's back. How long is she gonna stand there and stare at us this time?"

: “Moooom, I’m hungry.”

"Mom, I see you up there. Come down here and feed me."

"You birds be quiet down there. I'm napping."

"Everyone be quiet, Dad's napping as well."

: “Maybe she can’t see us behind all this moss.”

A week later, I paid another visit to the baby owls. I think they are 3-4 weeks old at this point. Now they are big enough that Mom doesn’t sit in the nest with them as much. She was sitting a couple of branches up from the nest. The babies could see her. It looked like they kept looking up at her. Dad was one tree over and up a little higher. Both parent slept the entire time I was there. Soon they’ll be outgrowing that nest spot and will be sitting on their own branches. I’m going to try and check back again in another week.

Owl babies

On February 1, 2012January 31, 2012 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

"All these photographers staring at us is boring."

"I'm going back to sleep." Maybe they'll all leave."

"You two stop making fun of all those people. They just think you're cute."

My 2nd baby sighting of the year is a pair of baby owls. (The first was baby night herons, story coming tomorrow). I think they’re about 3 weeks old at this point. There’s a small park not to far from my home and work that I hit pretty often. The first two spring seasons I was there, the owl had one baby. Then last spring the owls didn’t stay and nest so it was a let-down. Then I heard the owl couple was back. Several weeks I visited and there was always an owl sitting on the old nest. I was holding my breath when I had read a baby had been born. I headed out a couple of days later and for two hours all I saw was a tiny bit of white fuzz from behind the parent. This past Saturday, I headed out early and was hoping to see the baby. To my excitement, not only was the baby so big now he was highly visible, there were two of them. I don’t know if this is the same couple from the last couple of years. If so, why didn’t they nest last spring? And was this their first time having twins? Hopefully, I can get back there each weekend until they are all grown up. The last picture is of the other parent, who was sitting high in a tree close by.