A pop of yellow from a yellow rumped warbler. After a quick walk around Possum Branch on Saturday morning in mid-January, I headed home but stopped by the Safety Harbor fishing pier for a quick walk on the pier.
It was a quiet morning at the fishing pier.
The bright red beaks on the ibis stuck out on this drab morning.
The grackles were picking snacks off the oyster bed.
Pigeons are like snowflakes. No two are alike. There’s always a large flock of them at the Safety Harbor fishing pier. It was interesting to see how many different color patterns they had.
These little prairie dogs were so cute. I know, they are just cuter gophers or maybe more like meerkats. We just sat in our car and watched them run around for a while. These shots are all extremely cropped up. They were pretty far out in the field and if I opened my door they would all scurry into the holes.
My first ever coyote sighting. He was also pretty far away.
A few birds along the road: pigeon, meadowlark, kestral and a sparrow of some type.
Some of the critters we saw during our drive through Rocky Mountain Arsenal Park in Denver. I think if I lived here I would always be cruising through here. Lots of critters to see roaming around. It was near our hotel so we drove through quickly before getting dinner. We also saw bison and deer so more on those later.
More pictures from our walk through Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. It was our first day in Colorado so I took a ton of pictures. What an amazing place. Even with the dark clouds it was a magical place. I think it even drizzled a little while we were there but at least it wasn’t freezing. I’m sure on the weekends and in the summer when it’s extremely crowded it’s not as much fun. There were signs for over flow parking down the road and you have to take a shuttle into the park.
A few birds. A pigeon and a western scrub jay. The western scrub jay was a first for me. I still haven’t seen the eastern one that lives here in Florida.
I stopped by the Safety Harbor fishing pier on the way home recently and was kind of bummed the weather looked so bad. This was taken with my phone. I was thinking about jumping back in the car and going home but I thought I’d walk around the area for a few minutes.
The only bird I found there, other than a few laughing gulls flying over head.
The exposed sand along the seawall was covered in fiddler crabs. They are very skittish and kept running back in their little sand holes. I finally was able to get a few outside.
They are very tiny, this is extremely cropped.
Even with the threat of rain, there were a few people on the pier. Manatees were swimming close by but the water was too dark to get any pictures.
I realized it was raining north of the pier and lightning was popping up.
I only had my 70mm – 200mm lens with me and these were handheld.
There was a lady on the pier as well who was taking pictures and she had a lightning trigger on the top of her camera that automatically shot pictures when it detected lightning. I had not heard of that accessory but it might be a cool one to look into. That would mean I would have to spend more time standing around waiting for storms. On the weekends,whenever I hear thunder starting I think “I should pack up and go to the airport parking deck to try to get lightning pictures.” It’s hard to get out and do that. I’m usually getting dinner ready or doing chores. Maybe a new toy would motivate me. Anyone have any experience using one?
