Almost the end of spring migration

On July 13, 2024July 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I made another trip to Fort Desoto Park near the end of April to look for migrating birds. This one was easy to find. I heard the Chuck-will’s-widow was near the bay pier. She had been there for several days and people thought she was nesting since she spent most of her time on the ground. They are not rare for the area but they are hardly ever seen. You can see how she blends into the ground. The area where she was hanging out was all roped off so you could see her from a distance. This was my 2nd sighting of one. The first was at the Dry Tortugas on a trip to Key West several years ago. I zoomed in on the 2nd picture because she had the most amazing whiskers across her face. She disappeared after about 2 weeks. She probably thought the area was too busy.

The nearby osprey nest was busy. I walked up right as Mom was feeding the babies.

I saw a lot of juvenile indigo buntings near the fountain. I think the 2nd shot is a female.

More Cape May warblers. They were everywhere this spring. The top 2 are males and the bottom 2 are females.

This was my first time this spring seeing a blackpoll warbler. They usually come through here in the spring but I didn’t see this one until almost the end of migration.

A catbird sits on top of the fountain.

The nanday parakeets were in their usual spots along the east beach trails. This one was eating the mangrove grapes.

I don’t often see pileated woodpeckers here although I hear them along the trails. This one was digging something juicy out of the soft wood.

A two park morning

On June 19, 2021May 31, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

A bluebird greated me when I got to Felts Preserve in late April. I was still on my quest to look for migrating birds so I thought I would make the drive down south of St. Pete to see if any were here. There are bluebird nesting boxes around the preserve so I wasn’t surprised to see one but I didn’t see any young ones.

There were several great crested flycatchers hanging out on the blue martin bird houses. I wonder if the flycatchers use them. I didn’t see them going in the houses.

There were a lot of indigo buntings hanging around the feeders. Other than the buntings, this spring migration was turning into a bust.

After I left Felts Preserve, I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park on the way to see if there were any migrating birds there. None there as well but I did catch some tiny flying critters around the small butterfly garden.

Drab little birds in late December

On April 3, 2021March 31, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

There were a lot of non-breeding male indigo buntings at Felts Preserve the morning I was there in late December. It was cold that morning as I sat in the bushes waiting for them to come to the feeders (just under 40 degrees is cold for us central Florida folks). They were all fighting over the best feeding spots. Occasionally a painting bunting would pop out of the bushes but most of the birds there that morning were indigo buntings.

Either a very young bunting or a female.

There were a few other birds as well including doves and a cardinal.

Splattered blue on the leaves. This guy had a little more blue on his head.

A non-breeding male goldfinch also made an appearance. I never see goldfinches in the parks near my house. The only time I’ve seen bright yellow breeding ones are during my visits to Atlanta in the spring.

Rainbows in the woods

On March 27, 2021March 10, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I was in the mood for a road trip but didn’t want to go anywhere that I would have to walk far. I headed down to a small Audubon preserve about an hour south of Tampa. There’s a small preserve run by the Audubon Society that has feeders set up with a blind in the middle of a neighborhood (mostly horse farms and small cow pastures). It was 40 degrees when I got there early in the morning in late December. No one else was around. I got to the blind and sat for a few minutes thinking “Is it too cold for the birds?”. I walked around the small preserve for a while and when I came back to the blind a half hour later I just sat on the bench. I was about to give up when a saw a flash of color head to the feeders. Several male painted buntings and young blue buntings started coming to feeder. One was sitting on an empty feeder waiting his turn at the full feeder. I think this is the most painted buntings I’ve seen in one place. I ended up spending an hour watching these beautiful birds in the quiet.

Walking out of the preserve, I noticed this tree had turned bright orange. Yes, fall was starting to hit in late December.

Early May at Fort Desoto

On June 22, 2019June 24, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

High up in a tree, I watched this yellow warbler stuff himself with snacks.

There were still a few other birds in early May at Fort Desoto including the blackpoll warbler in the last picture.

Frigatebirds were flying high overhead.

At the east end of the park I could just barely make out Downtown St. Petersburg.

Birds at the fishing pier.

Recently I keep seeing parakeets popping out of trees.

The sand trails are covered with these grasshoppers.

image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup Our World Tuesday Graphic

Colors of the rainbow

On June 1, 2019May 19, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

Yellow warbler.

My first blue winged warbler with a snack.

Lots of indigo buntings at the park this year.

Female indigo buntings don’t have any blue at all.

Scarlet tanagers have black wings.

Orchard orioles

Eastern kingbirds.

A rare western kingbird.

A painted bunting foraging for food on the ground.

We had great fall out the 3rd weekend in April for migrating birds. After a storm on Friday afternoon, I headed out to Fort Desoto park to see if any of the spring migrating birds had stopped by for a rest. Everyone else had the same idea. Even though there were a ton of people at the park there were lots of birds as well. It’s always fun running into old friends at the park in the spring and having more eyes to spot birds.This was the busiest weekend this spring and I spent most of the day there with lots more pictures to come.

All the colors of the rainbow passing through.

On August 7, 2018August 7, 2018 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

A not very common Swainson’s Thrush.

Summer tanagers. The bottom one is an immature male.It’s cool to see them when they are half yellow and half red.

Gray birds: a wood pee wee and a catbird.

I think this is a female Orchard Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole.

Beautiful blue indigos.

Red eyed vireos.

Magnolia Warbler

A bay breasted warbler was hiding high up in the trees all morning.

Lots of different little birds at Fort Desoto at the end of April.

Linking to Wednesday Around the World.

A very quick spring migration

On July 22, 2017July 18, 2017 By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment

The mangroves along the road at Fort Desoto Park were full of female indigo buntings. They were the most accommodating birds. All of the others were staying hidden.

There were yellow warblers all over the park.

We had one lone bay breasted warbler in the mangroves.

A single black throated green warbler kept us entertained for a while.

I’m not sure if this is a eastern kingbird or an eastern wood-pewee.

The ruby throated hummingbirds were out this morning. There were several females hanging out at the firebush.

We only had a small sprinkle of birds stopping over on their way north for the summer in April. On the first Friday in May we had a big storm come through the area. On Saturday morning I got up early and headed down to Fort Desoto to see if any birds had landed to take a break before heading north. The park was full of little birds. Most were hiding but I managed to get a few shots of them deep in the bushes. There were a lot of barn swallows flying around but after torturing myself for a few minutes trying to get pictures I gave up.

Just passing through

On May 23, 2016May 24, 2016 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

Yellow bellied sapsucker.

Lots of indigo buntings including the juvenile in the last picture. He hasn’t got all of his blue feathers in yet.

The scarlet tanager has black wings.

The summer tanager is the only all red bird in America (according to All About Birds)

Female red breasted merganser.

And a pretty cactus flower just for fun.

These were taken at Fort Desoto in early April when spring migrating birds were stopping by for a rest before heading north for the summer. There wasn’t a ton of birds but a few good ones.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing