Tag: horse

Dancing cranes on the bike trail

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

I had another sighting of the elusive fox squirrel on the Pinellas County bike trail near Brooker Creek Preserve at the end of December. There were two but one stayed hidden high up in the tree.

I don’t see deer often on this trail so this was a treat to see her looking at me.

Three sandhill cranes walking along the trail.

A kildeer flies by.

This mockingbird had an overgrown beak. This was the first time I had seen this.

A pair of kestrels were in the cow pasture. One was on the utility wire and one took off from a dead snag right when I saw him.

On my way back to the car I saw the three sandhill cranes again. This time they were starting to dance around. They usually do this to flirt but there was three of them and they seemed to be agitated over something on the ground.

One kept picking up what looked like a hollow dead branch and danced around with it. Maybe it was two males trying to impress the female? They did this for quite a while then just stopped and started walking away. What a funny thing to watch.

Grazing near the trail. Is this a miniature horse or a pony?

Heading home I took a less traveled back road and slowed down when I saw a doe on the shoulder. She crossed right in front of me.

 

SkyWatch Friday

An early morning bike ride

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I was out on my bike in early April watching the sun come up on the Pinellas County bike trail. It was a little too early to see any migrating birds but I might see something else fun.

I had just started out and up ahead I saw an alligator crossing the trail. This is the first time I’ve seen one on the trail here but since there are ponds on both sides I wasn’t too surprised to see him crossing.  I was afraid I wouldn’t have time to take my camera out of the backpack so I took the above with my phone.

A quick video of him strutting across. After this I pedaled over to where he went in on the other side.

I was able to catch him down in the ditch as he crawled under a hole in the fence and went into the pond.

Farther down the sun was coming up over the horse pasture.

Evening primrose was blooming along the fence.

The sun far up across the field. The lake in the back is Lake Dan.

The pattern on this juvenile bald eagle is striking. I saw him across the cow pasture and at first I thought it was a red-tailed hawk but when he turned around I could see his eagle beak.  I was hoping he would fly off but after 15 minutes he looked like he wasn’t going to move so I continued on the trail.

A red headed woodpecker was in the same big dead tree.

This not-quite adult eagle was sitting high up in the tower right on the trail. Based on the coloring in his head he must be around 3 years old. See chart below for age identification.

Bald eagles don’t get their all white head until they are 5 years old.

He started yelling at the crows that were bothering him and took off.

More flowers along the trail.

I love seeing the horses out in the pasture. It makes me feel like I’m farther out in the country (or really just suburbs here).

Cattle egrets taking a break from feeding on bugs around the cattle. Many had their pretty bright orange breeding feathers and beaks.

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Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

The eagles are back – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

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I think most of the eagles are back in Florida for the winter and the famous couple down at Fort Myers already have eggs. You can see the web came here. I finally saw one of the eagles not too far from my house on the horse farm. He was sitting in a tree across the street from the nest. I didn’t see anyone on the nest but the mate could have been sleeping on it and I just couldn’t see her from the street.

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I spotted the peacocks wandering around the neighborhood where the eagle’s nest is located. There are now a ton of them all over the place. They were pretty quiet when I stopped by but I bet they can wake up the whole neighborhood when they start screaming.

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They were all over the neighborhood.

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I stopped to take a picture of the eagle in the tree and a horse came over to check me out.

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At a nearby pond, I found a kildeer couple.

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One of them was wandering down the sidewalk in front of the houses. His friend was across the street in front of the pond.

I was excited to see the eagle back at the horse farm. I’m hoping for another successful eagle family again this year.

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday

Eagles nest at the farm

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

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Both babies are about the same size now.

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One is flapping a little more.

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I think they were fighting over scraps.

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The parent looking around. The babies were on the other side of the tree trunk on the right.

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It’s a big nest.

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This is the 2nd time I’ve seen bluebirds hanging around near the nest. I didn’t see any last year. They’ll be leaving soon to head back up north.

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The lone baby chicken is getting big. I was glad to see it doing well.

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This horse was very friendly.

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There were several other people there watching the eagle’s nest on my most recent trip and this horse wanted attention.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon so I decided to stop by the eagle’s nest one more time to see how the big babies were doing. They were pretty big at this point. They looked to be the size of the parents. One was already flapping his wings pretty good. It’s peaceful there  and I like seeing all of the peacocks and chickens running around. I took a ton of pictures on this trip since the weather was so nice and the birds were pretty active. I’ll post more later.

Linking up to Saturday’s Critters  Shine the Divine