Fish for breakfast

On September 22, 2025October 15, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I was out for one of my usual morning walks in early June at the Dunedin Marina and parked in front of this mural which is on the front of the small restaurant that sits on the marina. It’s a good central place to park and I always look for manatees and dolphins before my walk. From here I can walk in 3 different directions. South towards Clearwater is on the water but there’s no shade so I usually take that route on cloudy days. East takes me through downtown Dunedin and north takes me along the water through neighborhoods with lots of old oak trees.

The north route has lots of blooming things to look at.

A bunny along the grass.

A Momma duck and her 2 tiny babies walking across the street.

I got back to the marina and saw 2 osprey chasing each other. They were heading for the osprey nest in the big pine tree.

One of the osprey had a fish with him and landed and started to dig in to his freshly caught breakfast. They have a big nest in this tree and hang out here all year. Nesting season for them won’t start again until mid-winter but they are still here. I guess there’s good fish in this marina.

A few days later my walk started at the Safety Harbor waterfront.

Someone had tied a flag to the railing in front of the closed pier.

After my walk I was standing in front of the pier before leaving and saw an osprey fly in with a fish. I ran back to my car and got my camera and he was still eating. It looked like he was struggling a little in the wind and the poor fish kept flopping. Osprey, also know as fish hawks, only eat fish so they can be found along the water. Osprey were almost completely wiped out due to the wide use of DDT (a pesticide) that made their egg shells too thin to develop. The pesticide was banned in 1972 and these guys have made a big rebound although now mercury from the fish they exclusively eat has caused concern. When I would come down to the Tampa Bay area to visit my parents in the early 90’s I rarely saw an osprey and now I see them everywhere.

Critters in my neighbor’s yard.

On September 7, 2019August 7, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment

Pulling into my driveway one Saturday afternoon I saw an osprey on my neighbor’s dead palm tree. I ran out the side door with my camera and the osprey was was looking at me like “Don’t steal my fish.” I stood in the door frame to take these. I was afraid he would fly off but he didn’t. Just kept eating his fish.

Later in the afternoon I saw some juvenile starlings hanging around the same palm tree. I’m assuming these were the ones that were born in the nest in the same tree. They were there for a few hours that afternoon and then gone. Since then, the dead palm tree was removed. Luckily the neighbor’s waited until the babies were gone. I miss looking out of the kitchen window to see what was on the tree but the tree could have been a hazard if a storm or hurricane came through.

Looking out the side bedroom window, a squirrel was taking a nap on my neighbor’s screened porch. Not a smart move for a squirrel. Too many hawks in the area that could fly by and grab him.

It’s the start of osprey nesting season.

On April 2, 2019April 2, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

On a Saturday morning in February, I walked out on beach trail and saw this massive osprey nest above. It must have been here for years but on this particular morning, I noticed how much bigger it had gotten. Maybe it was sinking in and the osprey kept adding to it. On Sunday, someone had posted on the Facebook Fort Desoto site that the nest had completely collapsed and fallen to the ground. The osprey couple did not let this get the best of them. They spent an entire week bringing sticks back to the nest, starting from scratch. They were seen all over the area bringing sticks back (although if they were that smart they would just fly down to the ground underneath the tree and bring the same sticks back up). The next Saturday morning I went back out on the beach and saw the below. The birds had already built a pretty good size nest.

Even a week later, they were still flying in with sticks. They didn’t want to waste anymore time. As I was leaving and heading back to the parking lot, I took one last glance back and saw they were mating.

Farther down the trail, this guy was just starting breakfast and didn’t seem to mind me standing on the trail watching him eat.

An afternoon walk on the fishing pier

On May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

There were not many birds on the beach near the pier. A few laughing gulls and this lone black bellied plover.

Looks like this is a couple of laughing gulls flirting.

The rare hybrid great blue heron/great egret made an appearance at the pier.

This osprey was eating some yummy fish on the light post on the pier.

Another osprey was also eating. These osprey have been hanging out on the pier a lot lately. They are not skittish and don’t fly away as tons of people are walking by just below them.