Tag: kapok tree

A hot walk at the gardens

On By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants8 Comments

Update: Brett and I are safe, waking up to to the mess of Hurricane Milton. We are just north of St. Pete and Clearwater. No power and most don’t have water. As the sun comes up we will head outside to see the mess. Please pray for central Florida to get through this 2nd hurricane in 2 weeks. Thanks, Dina.

I made a quick trip to the Florida Botanical Gardens in late June. At this point it was too hot for anything longer than a 45 minute walk outside. I wasn’t expecting to see many birds but I did see a few smaller critters.

Color around the gardens.

The butterfly garden was already overgrown. I waited a while hoping to see some hummingbirds or hummingbird moths but neither made an appearance.

My favorite tree here is this skinny rainbow eucalyptus tree. The bark peels off in colors.

There are a lot of great old trees here. The tag said this is a kapok tree but I’ve never seen it bloom. Some kapoks only bloom once every 10 years so this may be one of them. The big kapok on the main road through Clearwater blooms big orange blooms every spring.

The big lake is getting all choked up. It seems like they would clear out the water hyacinth that is invasive. It keeps the water from moving through.

After the walk at the gardens I stopped at a fairly new farmer’s market nearby. There were a ton of tables here and most had exotic fruits and vegetables. The coconut booth had a lot of people around it grabbing fresh coconuts.

I came for some mangos but the exotic fruits were interesting. The top booth had a lot of lychee. My husband grew up eating it as a kid but he has lost his taste for it now. The bottom shot is rambutan. You peel the skin off and it’s like a grape underneath.  I’ll come back in the winter when it isn’t so hot and look around a little more.

SkyWatch Fridaylinkup party

Out and about

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Views from my early March walk at the Dunedin causeway. I saw something moving down in the water and peeked over the seawall to see an anhinga drying off on a shelf. He was like “Don’t be looking over in my spot.”. I took these with my phone so he was really close.

When I got over to the marina I found a great egret and pelican on the dock. They are so used to be around people on this dock that they are not very skittish. The pelican eventually when back in to the water to start feeding again.

Just me and my shadow during low tide in front of the marina. The water was like glass this morning.

The view through the mangroves.

The purple martins were back in their condos. They were bringing in nesting material. I had wished I brought my camera. The above was with my phone.

A few days later I was out running errands and stopped by the big Kapok Tree nearby. It was just past peak blooming and the ground was covered with blooms. I grabbed a few from the ground to take back home. The old historic building that started as a restaurant now houses a music store. The music store is closing and the locals hope the building doesn’t get torn down and replaced with condos (which seems to be happening everywhere around here).

SkyWatch Friday

Out and about in late February

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

The big kapok tree in Safety Harbor was blooming in late February. Much earlier than last year. I was driving by and saw the moon going down behind it so I had to pull over and snap a few.

After leaving the kapok tree I decided to swing by the fishing pier for a quick walk. There were a few manatees coming up for air.

A female lesser scaup cruising by.

I saw this osprey fishing for breakfast far out in the bay. He pulled up a big one and as he was flying away he dropped it. I was hoping he would try for another fish but he just flew over my head and far out of sight. Maybe he was embarrassed.

One day I was coming home and saw two red faces pop up from a pond in my neighborhood. They were hanging out along the golf course. I have since seen them several times but not since late February. I’m thinking maybe they are nesting but I couldn’t find them anywhere.

There’s a fenced in section of woods at the end of my street and when I’m out walking I always look down this open spot, thinking I’ll never see anything in here but it’s a pretty spot. One morning I could just make out 2 deer in between the trees.