Tag: kentucky warbler

Migration has started

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Spring migration was just starting in early April (although a few birds have trickled through since mid-March) so I was up before sunrise and made it down to Fort Desoto just as the sun was coming up (the park doesn’t open until 7am so right now we can’t get in before that). I took this on the bridge before the park.

I went straight to East Beach since I heard there was some birds on the trails at that part of the park. Before heading down the trail I stopped on the beach to catch the sun coming up over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I took all of these with my phone. I figured even if I didn’t see a lot of birds I at least saw an amazing sunrise.

A wood thrush was easy to find on the ground.

Black and white warblers were all over the park.

A rose breasted grosbeak was eating a berry but stayed pretty hidden.

There was a prothonotary warbler right on the trail and he was not shy. He popped out of the bushes and landed right in front of me and seemed to wait for me to take his picture.

My 2nd ever worm eating warbler (the first was in my backyard in 2022). He was a little shy and I waited a while for him to come out in the open.

A prairie warbler.

Hooded warblers were all over the park and it’s usual for them to be the first migrating birds we see here.

I got a brief glimpse of a Kentucky warbler. He was shy and we looked for him for a long time. He looks a lot like the hooded warbler but he has black under his eye instead of under his chin. His head has bumps on it as well so it looks like it’s textured.

I stopped at the gulf fishing pier before leaving and found these two female red breasted mergansers hanging out in front of the stones along the wall.

It’s always fun when spring migration is in full swing although a little exhausting. Getting up early and running around looking for new birds. No rest until mid-May. I always see lots of old birding friends and make some new ones during this time. People in the area thought this spring’s migration was a bit of a dud but I thought it great and saw 5 new birds. More on those later.

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A rainbow of birds at Fort Desoto

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

Painted buntings were all over the ground.

Summer tanager.

Scarlet tanagers have black wings.

Lots of prothonotary warblers.

An immature male orchard oriole. He’ll turn a burnt dark orange after his next molt.

Above are female orchard orioles.

A rare Kentucky warbler.

An immature blue indigo looking back at me.

Fort Desoto Park in south Pinellas county is known as a hot spot for birds migrating through in the spring and fall. The birds seem to be more plentiful in spring vs. fall migration. All of the above were seen in a 2 hour period in mid-April. Just standing quietly in the bushes watching them fly in and eat the mulberries with 20 or so other people. All with our long lenses and binoculars. I was using my 300mm lens with a 1.4 extender to zoom in. These are also cropped up so we were all pretty far away.

 

 

Boobies, noddies and a chuck

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

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My first masked boobies. We were far away on a boat headed for the Dry Tortugas. They nest on this small sand bar out in the middle of nowhere. The sandbar is protected so we could not get to close. Lucky I had my 200mm lens with me and ready to shoot as we went by. These are extremely cropped.

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Another first sighting was the sooty terns. These birds were flying in between a sandbar and the Dry Tortugas.  Several flew close to the boat.

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Not a first but still cool to see. Frigatebirds were circling overhead as we docked at the Tortugas.  A juvenile on the left and a female on the right.

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Then the entire family with dad on the left with the red chest flew by.

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Thousands of birds were on one end of the island.  That section was closed off since many of the birds were nesting.

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Another first, a chuck-will’s-widow on the ground. I have to give credit to several other birders who had found him right before I walked up. They were looking for the Kentucky warbler and found him instead.

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He was hiding under some bushes. I could just make out his face through the branches.

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I did find the Kentucky warbler, another first for me. They told me to look for a bird that looks like a hooded warbler but doesn’t have as much black on the head.

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Heading back onto the boat for lunch, the frigatebirds were still cruising close to the boat.

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Several blue grosbeaks were flying around inside the fort but they were very skittish.

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My 5th new bird of the day was the brown noddies. There were a lot of these flying in between the closed off end of the island and old pilings next to the fort. They are part of the tern family.

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More noddies flying in.

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A male frigatebird flies close by as the boat was leaving the island.

I’m going to bore you with my tons of vacation pictures. Brett and I recently spent a week in Key West. It was our first time on the island. We had a great time and I lugged my camera stuff everywhere. We took the all day boat trip out to the Dry Tortugas on the first day of our trip. It was a 2 and a half hour boat ride each way. The boat felt a little crowded with close to 200 people on it. Once we got to the island and everyone was spread out on that big island, it felt like we almost had the place to ourselves. Lots more pictures to come.

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