Watching the National bird grow up

On July 2, 2025August 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Sunrise at the eagle’s nest in my neighborhood. I was trying to get there early every few days since the baby was the most active in the mornings.

The lone baby was sitting in the nest waiting for a parent to bring food. Mom was sitting up in the same tower and she was probably wondering where Dad was with the squirrel or fish.

A few days later I was able to see him flapping his wings in place, building up his strength for that first big flight.

A few days later he was getting some air and made it over to the edge of the railing. It makes me nervous to see them first flying up to the edge. It would be easy for him to flap too hard and end up on the ground and not be able to get back up on the tower. That happened 2 years ago with one of the babies. Luckily some early morning dog walkers saw it and let me know it was on the ground. You can read more about the rescue in that post here.

This was taken with my phone and you can see how high up the towers are. The nest is in the right tower (on the top left side). That baby looks like a pin dot without binoculars or a long camera lens. I was using my 400mm lens for the up-close shots.

Some Boston Independence Day history

On July 4, 2024September 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn Vacation8 Comments

Brett and I made our first trip to Boston in October of 2019. We usually go out west to go hiking in the fall but this year Brett said he wanted to go to a city. New York was out because he grew up there until late high school and I traveled there for work for many years. I had also been to Chicago and we wanted to go somewhere different so we picked Boston. There’s so much history in this city and I don’t think we really appreciated it while we were there. We were busy eating and sightseeing.

We stayed near the harbor (our hotel was the silver/blue one in the middle). We had the Boston Tea Party Museum out our back door (in the water on the left).

What we celebrate today really started here. Demonstrators boarded the tea ship at night and threw the tea overboard to protest the Tea Act of 1773. This protest accelerated the American Revolution. From Wikipedia – The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, a tax passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act believing it violated their rights as Englishmen to “no taxation without representation“, that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a parliament in which they were not represented.

The statue is of Samuel Adams (who’s family owned a brewery). He was one of the Founding Fathers of the US and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

A view of the city from the water.

We saw a lot of flags here.

Another statue of Samuel Adams. This one is in front of Faneuil Hall (which was getting a facelift when we were there). It opened in 1742 and was a meeting hall at the time with Adams giving speeches encouraging independence from Great Britain. It’s still open as a marketplace.

We spent an afternoon walking through Boston Common, the oldest city park in the US. It started out as a cow pasture and was used by the British as a military camp right before the Revolution.

Paul Revere started his midnight “one if by land, two if by sea” ride here. You can read about it here.

Another prominent figure in the Revolution was William Dawes Jr, who also made a ride to warn of approaching British soldiers. He is said to be buried here in the King’s Chapel Burying Ground.

Some of the headstones in the King’s Chapel Burying Ground, established in 1630. It is the oldest cemetery in the city.

By the end of the week we were tired of walking and took a bus tour around the city. It went by the Granary Burying Ground on the edge of Boston Common, established in 1660. Many Revolutionary War patriots are buried here including 3 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Samuel Adams (gravestone above. I took the picture while we were stuck in traffic.), John Hancock and Robert Treat Paine as well as Paul Revere. Ben Franklin’s (who also signed the Declaration) parents are buried here while he is buried in Philadelphia.

I took this as we were flying home. I’m sure the view was much different back in the late 1700’s.

Things that remind me of July 4th.

On July 4, 2022June 25, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn Vacation1 Comment

This is a repost from 2016.

This was way too easy. A permanently injured eagle at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. Whoever added the flag on the back fence was a genius.

Mount Rushmore several years ago with my sister who lives in nearby Sioux Falls.

Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg Florida where members of the Armed Forces are buried. My parents are here. My dad was in WW2.

My cousin and his family are all in the Tampa Bay Water Ski show. This is the opening from their free shows every Saturday afternoon.

Practicing fireworks before dark in the neighborhood.

I found this flag hanging on a wall in a tourist shop in Tarpon Springs. It’s made of shells and starfish.

A very young bald eagle learning to fly.

A bald eagle souring across the sky.

I was looking through some older folders of a flag picture to post for today and came across all of the above. I couldn’t decide which one to post so I added all of them. All reminders of the summer season. From Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

Getting off the couch

On August 5, 2021August 5, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights5 Comments

We didn’t get any rain this past 4th of July. It was sunny most of the day. Brett and I stayed in and relaxed on the couch watching movies since it was so hot. Right before dark I jumped up and decided to get out and try and get some firework shots. Last year I went right into the thick of chaos on the causeway where everyone shoots off their own fireworks but the traffic is so bad so I decided to head to the airport and see if I could get some shots from the top of the airport parking deck. Of course I wasn’t alone. The open top deck was packed with people. There was a lot of firework tailgating going on. I found a good spot to stand facing downtown Tampa but realized there was a lot of haze and fog right over the city. And so far away. I realized I wasn’t going to get good shots but didn’t want to run out and try somewhere else.

The cool thing was that you could see fireworks going off all over the city. You could see them across the bay and out on the causeway. They were everywhere. If only they weren’t so far away. I had brought my 200mm and these are very cropped.

The football stadium was all lit up and people were setting off their own fireworks all around the stadium. People were probably shooting them off in the parking lots there.

Heading over to the other side of the parking deck, I could see fireworks over at Rocky Point, near the causeway. Someone was shooting them off right behind that new building and it looked like the building was on fire from far away.

It was a fun night out and everyone was having fun just being out with friends and family. I think next year I’ll try and find a deck much closer to the city. From the airport, the tall buildings downtown hid the big city fireworks that were being set off by the city at Channelside so that was a bust. Hopefully next year!