Towards the end of February I headed down to St. Pete, near downtown. I first stopped at Crescent Lake Park for a quick walk. The first thing I saw was this cute little pied grebe. I realized this one had his breeding beak on. We usually only see them in their non-breeding drab colors. This one had an all white beak with a black stripe down it which means he was ready to flirt. I heard weeks later that there were grebe babies there and I didn’t make it back down there to look for them.
There were only a few white pelicans left. Most had already left to go north for the summer.
Most of the wintering ducks were gone but this pretty lesser scaup was still there.
My next stop was at the North Shore Park waterfront for a longer walk. When I got back to my car I heard screaming from the tree in front of it and looked up and saw black capped (or nanday) parakeets. I grabbed my camera and started snapping. Isn’t three a crowd?
They were busy eating and being silly.
Some were already pairing up.
Some where huddling together in the cold (it was a little chilly this morning).
Some of the different colors of pigeons. I don’t see white ones or the red ash ones often.
Just a man walking his dog along the seawall.
A sailboat near the little bay beach.
It was early April and I was out for a morning walk at the Dunedin marina. It was quiet and the water was as smooth as glass. Smooth enough for me to notice that manatee coming up for air in the middle of the channel.
I could hear loud screaming coming from below the light post in the big pile of sticks. The parakeets build their nests at the bottom of the osprey nests and go in from underneath. The osprey have long left since they nest late winter. These monk parakeets were busying flying in and out but I didn’t see any young ones. There were several entrance holes to this one big nest.
