Tag: nature

On the road to spring migration – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I heard the birds were here. After work I headed for Fort Desoto to get in an hour or two of looking for spring migration birds. Of course, I get stopped on the bridge waiting for a sailboat to pass. While waiting, I pulled out my camera and shot the above from my car window. Sunshine Skyway bridge is pretty far away.

I first stopped at the East Beach turnaround. I had heard the mangroves there had some migrating birds. I only saw a few shorebirds including the one above. I think this is a least sandpiper.

This female red breasted merganser was strutting the beach. She should be heading north by now.

My first tree barn swallow picture. There were tons of these flying high around the turnaround. For the first time I actually saw one land in the bushes. Thanks, Michael and Steve for the correct id.

Big barge heading under the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I didn’t stay long at the turnaround. I quickly headed to the mulberry bush woods to see if there was anything there I hadn’t seen before. Boy, was I in for a treat. More to come…

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My friend Michael mentioned that it was 32 years ago yesterday when an outbound freighter hit the original Sunshine Skyway bridge causing it to collapse and close for good. Thirty five people lost their lives.  The new bridge was opened in 1987 and part of the old bridge was taken down in 1990. Part of the old bridge is used today as a fishing pier. The above picture was taken sometime in the late 80’s by my dad with both bridges still up. I found his old picture this past weekend when I was looking through his  slides that I had scanned to digital.

Eating crabs

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

“Here comes some more photographers. I guess I should put on a show for them. I am a little hungry anyway.”

“Wait, don’t take the shot. I’m choking here.”

“Got another one. This is way too easy.”

“I feel like an owl twisting my head this way.”

“Yummy, I wish I had some butter for these crab legs.”

“Down the hatch”

“Hey, what about me? I got a crab too.” says the tiny Wilson’s plover.

The long billed curlews at the North Beach sanctuary at Fort Desoto have a reputation for being very accommodating if they’re out in front of the ropes. A large part of this section of the beach is roped off to allow the shorebirds to rest and nest. Sometimes they wander out of the roped off area to feed in the lagoon area and you can see them a little closer. We all sat down on the sand and spent a half hour watching this curlew dig for crabs right in front of us. He wandered pretty close to where we sitting for a while.  He must have pulled up 10 crabs while we sat there. Eventually, he headed over to the other side of the lagoon. I wonder if the crabs pinch the inside of the curlew as it goes down. Those shorebirds must have some tough insides.

Baby birds at Gatorland

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography21 Comments

More like sibling rivalry than brotherly love. Baby great egrets.

Who’s going to win this battle?

“Mom, where’s my fish?”

“All together now, MOM, where’s our fish?”

This tiny one’s beak was bigger than the rest of his body.

I took this from across the lake. I rarely see baby wood storks.

I also took this anhinga nest from across the lake. The middle baby had his head in mom’s beak getting a bite.

A handful of shots from my trip to Gatorland in mid-April.  The great egrets, which are usually born first, are getting big. The ones that I took in mid-March look like full-grown adults now. The baby tricolored herons were just being born when I was there. More on those later.

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New birds at Fort Desoto

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

I have seen one other eastern kingbird. But it was from far away while I was kayaking.

My first orchard oriole. This one was female. I have to laugh though. I was getting confused because there were so many birders out this morning and then the above would fly by and they would say “There’s an oriole.”. Then the one below would fly by and someone else would say the same thing. I kept thinking “someone doesn’t know their birds very well.” People keep calling two different birds the same thing. Well, I was the one who didn’t know. The below is the male version. They look so different.

My first male orchard oriole sighting.

My first northern parula.

Not a first bird, night herons are everywhere here. We were quietly sitting in front of Larry’s fountain hoping something tiny and cute would fly up and all we got was this big thing. He looked around like “Why are all these people sitting around in the woods?” He took a couple of drinks and left.

The woods were full of butterflies.

A couple of weekends ago I headed down to Fort Desoto. This was before the big “fall out” weekend but I had heard there were a few migratory birds already there. I headed to the mulberry bush woods and there was already a traffic jam through the trails. Rush hour traffic looking for birds. (And my hubby thinks I’m the only one.) The best part was having a lot of experts around to help with IDs (unless they got any of the above wrong). It saved me some time looking randomly for tiny birds in my Stokes 800 page guide. It was a beautiful morning to be at the park. I spent most of the day there before getting a flat tire on the Howard Franklin bridge on the way home. Triple A came to my rescue.

Looking for baby sandhill cranes – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography10 Comments

My goal for my recent trip to Circle B was to find the baby sandhill cranes that had eluded us the weekend before. As soon as I walked out on the trail, I saw the family far out in the middle of marsh.

The family was moving quickly towards the tree line away from the trail. Both babies were there but I could only get a few quick pictures of one before they were gone in the tall grass.

Hairy or downy woodpecker?

Palm warblers were everywhere that morning.

Yellowlegs walking by a handful of blue winged teals. I love the purple tint on the teal on the far right.  They were keeping an eye on the shorebird.

Typical Florida great blue heron picture. He was sitting high up in a tree on Alligator Alley. He has this determined look on his face.

Early in the morning the sun was coming through the famous dead trees at the beginning of  Marsh Rabbit Run trail. These trees usually have black bellied whistling ducks, woodpeckers or egrets sitting on them. This morning they were empty.

Just a few shots of a recent trip out to the reserve to look for the sandhill crane babies. This was taken several weeks ago so they are probably pretty big by now. I was glad I caught a few seconds of them before they headed out.

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Possum Branch Preserve

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography18 Comments

“Look at my big fish!”

Another view. I did not see him swallow this. He sat there for a few minutes and then flew off. I’m sure at some point he got it down.

The red winged blackbirds were being very noisy. I kept trying to tell them to be quiet so I could enjoy my morning. They would not listen.

Pied grebe floating close by. I have never noticed the black stripe on their beak before.

Sparrow – this is either a swamp, grasshopper or savannah. All of them were listed as being seen in this spot. The other birders there argued over which one it was. I’m thinking savannah since it looks like he has a little yellow around his head.

I turn around to start to leave and see a kildeer on the trail. I snapped the picture before he took off. When he took off, another one flew off with him.

Cute little Florida rat (alligator snack).

 

I thought I’d head back to Possum Branch to look for the green tailed towhee. I found him right after Christmas  but hadn’t been back to this little preserve since then. No sight of the towhee in the almost two hours I was there but I have read others have sighted him since then. That tiny little preserve on the corner of a very busy intersection is amazing. As soon as I walked in, I spot the great blue heron pulling something out of the water. I thought “This was totally worth stopping here even if I don’t see anything else.” There were sparrows flitting all around the bushes and lots of usual grackles and blackbirds. The canal that runs along the preserve had lesser scaup but they’ll be gone soon. I was surprised to see the kildeer there. I don’t see them often. I spotted 5 alligators in the two small ponds. Now I hear there’s a clapper rail there so another trip will be soon.

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Safety Harbor fishing pier – Skywatch Friday

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography12 Comments
Hardly anyone on the pier. It was such a beautiful day. Where was everyone?
The day started out cloudy. But then the sun started peeking out.
Such a perfect view!
Surprise! A rare horned grebe floats up to the pier.
The manatees are back early this year. They usually don't show up at this pier until late March. In the summer, you can always see manatees around the pier.
Hey lady, gimmi a kiss!
Safety Harbor, a small little part of the Tampa bay area, is one of my favorite pit stops. Actually, the fishing pier is. The town sits on the water in  the upper Tampa bay, north of all 3 bridges (Gandy, Howard Franklin and Courtney Campbell) that cross the bay from Pinellas County to Hillsborough County. Unless there is an event going on at the little marina, I can always find a good parking spot and it’s free. Most of the time there are pelicans and shorebirds flying around or digging around in the sand. In the warm months you can always see manatees swimming around the pier.  When the time changes and it’s light outside after work, I sometimes stop by for a quick walk along the pier just to de-stress.  Usually just to take a deep breath before heading to do battle at the grocery store. On a recent Saturday morning I stopped there on the way home from checking on the baby owls. It turned out to be a perfect morning.
 
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