A few days before Christmas Brett and I went for a long walk along the water at the St. Pete Pier. As we drove into the parking lot I noticed the orchid trees were still blooming (although they were past the peak). I got out of the car and saw a flock of nanday parakeets flying into the tree right in front of our car. It was another one of those “I wish I had my camera” moments. Even though the parakeets blend into the leaves they were easy to spot because they were so LOUD.
The tide is usually super low in the winter.
We passed a party going on in the street. There was a DJ and they were playing music. They were dressed so colorfully and looked like they were having fun.
The entrance to the pier was decorated for the holidays.
We saw a lot of dolphins this morning.
These guys were cast netting for mullet. It’s hard to catch mullet with a fishing pole so most people use the nets. There were several boats along the pier pulling up the fish and the ones who had just arrived had the empty boats. The “mullet run” season runs September through November but they must have still been swimming around by the thousands in late December. I’m assuming there was going to be a lot of local restaurants with smoked mullet on the menu after this morning.
The dolphins were also doing some fishing in the same spot.
Climbing up the stairs of the pier to the top level, I could see Tampa far behind the sailing class.
Looking towards St. Pete.
On our walk back to the car I could hear more parakeets screaming as they fly by me under the sun.
They flew into a nearby palm tree and hung around for a few minutes before taking off again. These parakeets are wild here but not native to Florida. They were brought here from central America and have been growing in population since the 60’s.
