Tag: honeymoon island

Nothing but skeeters at Honeymoon Island in December

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

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And this eastern towhee. I don’t see these very often.

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Catbirds are very common here.

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It’s common to see a kestrel high up in a tree.

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The eagle is on the nest. I’ve heard that the rangers have reported there are eggs. I could just barely see her head sticking up. I did not see the other parent that morning.

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A downy woodpecker hanging around.

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I saw this juvenile bald eagle way out in the lagoon across from the nature center. The tide was very low and the oyster beds were exposed.

It’s not fun to go on a hike in early December and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had two coats of bug repellant on with high DEET content. I still came home with 15 bug bites. They were biting my hands, my ears, my face. I stopped and sprayed my hair since they were dive bombing my head. Usually if I keep moving they don’t bother me too much but they were chasing after me as I walked very quickly down the trail. We need a good cold spell to get rid of these guys (like days with a high under 50).  It was 85 degrees.

SkyWatch Friday

Birds of prey on the nest at Honeymoon Island

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography14 Comments

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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.DSC_3894

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.

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

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

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

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

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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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