Tag: kapok park

Baby limpkins

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

On my after work walk around Kapok Park, I saw an adult limpkin down at the end of the creek. At first I thought “I don’t feel like walking down there to get another picture of a limpkin.” It was just starting to get dark and time was running out quick. But, I noticed he was eating. So I headed down there and guess what I saw?

A baby limpkin hiding in the grass.

Not just one but four babies.  All hiding in the grass.  They looked to be just a couple of days old.

One of the parents stayed close to them and kept pulling the tall grass around them. I sat down for a few minutes and watched her. She seemed to be making a makeshift nest for the night. Finally, she plopped down on top of them and looked like she was going to stay there for the night.

Camera Critters

Saying goodbye to grown up baby owls

On 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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Spoonbill and an owl at Kapok Park

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography12 Comments
Slinging water
Gulp!
Keeping an eye on that duck.
Great horned owl sitting on an egg.
There are tons of birds at Kapok Park. I can hear them. Finding them and getting their pictures are a whole different thing. Late on a Sunday afternoon I decided to head out for a walk but I think I wasn’t really in the mood. The easiest thing to find was a lone spoonbill staying very busy feeding in the water right below the boardwalk . She didn’t stop for a second. Just kept swinging her beak back and forth in the water.  I watched her for a while, taking tons of pictures. Before I left I stopped by the owl’s nest. She was sitting there like she has been for several weeks now. Since this trip I have heard the owl baby has been born so I’m on a mission to get some owl baby pictures. Check back later for those.
P.S. I think the reason I was in a funky mood that afternoon was because my little Spikey, a 6 year old cockatiel, had spent a day in the vet hospital. She was egg bound. When I got home from work Thursday night, she was not her usual self so I ran her to the overnight animal hospital. They kept her overnight and early the next morning I moved her to a bird specialist in north Tampa. She stayed there all day Friday and laid a very large egg. Almost the size of a ping pong ball. Her eggs before were the size of a jelly bean. When I went to pick her up Friday night, she laid another one while I was there. She’s been getting lots of medicine and is doing fine now but there will always be that risk again. They gave her hormone shots to stop the egg laying but that is only temporary.
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