Critters in my neighbor’s yard.

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 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.

Photographing New Zealand

 

An afternoon walk on the fishing pier

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.

It’s been a beautiful afternoon but I was hungry and had a 45 minute drive home so I left to get some dinner.

SkyWatch Friday