It’s always fun to watch the wild parakeets eating high up in the trees. They are so loud that it’s easy to spot them.
Lots of the usual birds at my walk at the Florida Botanical Gardens.
Across the pond, an osprey flies by with a snack.
Just a few plants at the gardens in early October.
Linking to Wednesday Around The World
My first ovenbird, hiding deep in the bushes.
My first Louisiana Waterthrush at the fountain.
An unidentified bird on the top. Any ideas? The 2nd one is a Cape May Warbler.
Eastern kingbird high up in the tree.
A blurry shot of a young blue grosbeak. I thought his color was interesting. I guess he’s molting into his adult male colors.
An osprey with a fish.
And a pretty moth.
By mid April there hadn’t been too many birds passing through on their way north for the summer. I headed down to Fort Desoto Park expecting not to find too much. As usual there were more people than birds on the trails. Not too many birds but some good ones. Two new birds for me, the ovenbird and waterthrush so it was a good morning.
An osprey with fast food on the go.
Only cardinals were going to the feeder at the nature center.
Hummingbirds were buzzing in between the feeder and the fire bushes.
Every once in a while they would stop to rest and clean their beaks.
The usual critters hanging around the boardwalk.
A few things on my Saturday morning walk in late April.
I was walking around Fort Desoto when this guy flew over my head. He was carrying a big fish. He landed on the utility pole and was about to start eating it when some fish crows started to bother him. Off he went before I could catch him taking a bite.
A kestrel was on the utility wire next to the pole and saw the whole thing.
Pretty pelican floating by.
A cormorant sleeping on the top of the light post.
Dolphins were cruising by the pier.
This osprey did not want to share his meal. After a closer look, I didn’t want it anyway.
Climbing a tree.
Great egret getting a snack.
It was a windy morning. The storm clouds had not moved in yet so the kiteboarders were out taking advantage of the wind. The park is pretty limited on wildlife sightings for the summer. Other than the usual laughing gull and reddish egret, there’s not much around the beach except tourists. When is summer over????
A great egret sitting on our dock. Taken through the bedroom window.
Our neighborhood osprey showed up in late August after being gone for 5 months. He must have had a late nest. He usually disappears in February or early March and is back visiting by end of June. I finally was able to get a shot of him trying to eat a fish on our neighbor’s dock. Taken through the bedroom window.
He would take a bite and then look around and take a bite and look around. He sure was paranoid.
Cool spider on my in-laws wall.
He was crawling close to the roof.
Palm tree in the backyard.
I got home right when it stopped raining one night after work. The sun was trying to peak out as the clouds moved through so I ran out in the backyard and snapped this with my phone.
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I wake up in the morning on just about every weekend and see this bird sitting on my neighbor’s dock or my other neighbor’s sailboat mast depending on how windy it is. Taken from the bedroom window.
On a non windy morning, this is the view. This one I took outside in the backyard.
Sometimes he comes back with a fish. This was a pretty big one. It was banging it’s tail on the side of the dock for a few minutes. Taken from the bedroom window.
I guess he was waiting for the fish to stop wiggling.
Occasionally, he has a blue heron sitting next to him. I don’t think he shares his fish but he doesn’t seem to scare away the heron.
Doesn’t that look yummy?
We’ve lived in our current house for 8 years now and as long as I can remember, we’ve had an osprey that hangs around our end of the channel. This time of year he sleeps on the sailboat mast almost every night. Before I go to bed, I peek out the window and can see him in the glow of the neighbor’s dock lights. When I wake up early during the week, he’s still there. When I wake up a little later on the weekends, between 7am and 8am, he’s gone fishing and shows up later. We can hear him yelling if other osprey get too close. He tolerates us outside if we stay close to the house but if we walk out on our dock, he screams and flies off. He disappears for 3 or 4 months in the spring. My theory is he’s raising babies during that time and stays close to the nest, where ever that is. He shows back up in the summer and stays until the next spring. I’ll miss him if he ever leaves us for good.
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