Tag: redhead ducks

Looking for ducks before my walk

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography7 Comments

At the beginning of January I went out for a walk and stopped to look for ducks first. Not just any ducks but wintering ducks. Every winter the water reclamation facility pond in Tarpon Springs fills up with winter ducks. When I got out of the car I saw a robin under the tree and quickly snapped the above before walking over to the pond.

The top picture was about half the ducks. They were all redheads. Usually there’s a mix of redheads, lesser scaup and ring-necked ducks. In the past if you zoom in and look closely you can find a random rare duck but all I saw this morning were redheads. The males have the red heads and the females are all brown. They will leave by the end of February.

As I was watching the ducks a few more robins landed in front of me.

Zooming in on the redheads, many were taking early morning baths.

Since I was up at Tarpon Springs I did a quick walk on the causeway at Fred Howard Park. The tide was super low again and the sky was clear. It was 58 degrees. I wish it would stay this way through at least May but that won’t happen. Winters here are so short.

On my way home I stopped at Craig Park on the bayou. The boats for the Greek  Epiphany celebration were already in the water, a few days before the event. I attended the Epiphany a few years earlier and you can read about the event and it’s meaning here. 

SkyWatch Friday

A drizzly morning walk

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I don’t hate foggy dreary days. It’s the only time it feels like winter here in central Florida. I’d rather it not drizzle though when I’m out walking around with my camera. I got to the Roosevelt Wetlands in late November when it was foggy but as I started walking down the trail it starting to drizzle (or spit as my Dad used to say).  I just put my hood over my head and kept walking.

I could see a bunny up ahead on the trail in the middle of the goldenrod. Most of the goldenrod was starting to fade here.

There was a redhead duck couple swimming away from the usual mallards, coots and moorhens. They stayed on the other side of the pond.

In the middle of the pond a coot was being chased away by some moorhens.

The grackles were keeping the anhingas company on the dead snag.

Even without the sun shining on him the grackle was showing off his pretty colors.

A female grackle also looking pretty on the alligator flag (thalia) plants.

I can’t ignore the blue gray gnatcatchers.

A sora rail was hiding in the reeds along the bank.

It drizzled on and off while I was there. The sun was trying to peek through the clouds when I was leaving.

A loggerhead shrike was sitting close to the trail. He was a little wet.

The sun was about to come out on the way home so I stopped at Possum Branch Preserve for a quick walk. It was pretty quiet but there was a lone redhead floating in the main pond.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

Critters close to home

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I was coming home from the grocery store and saw this guy feeding in my neighborhood. I had my camera in the car so I had to make a quick stop and shoot this.

I’ve been keeping an eye out on the towers in the neighborhood and one day I saw this juvenile eagle sitting high up. Several of the towers have nests but I was thinking they were all osprey nests. One of the nests was an eagle’s nest. Maybe this guy was born in the neighborhood last year?

There’s a water reclamation facility close to home and every winter the pond is filled with wintering ducks. I finally stopped to check out what kind of ducks they were. This is a small section of the ducks that were in the pond. The majority of them were redhead ducks but there were a few lesser scaup mixed in. I think this pond has the highest number of wintering ducks in the area.

There were a few hooded mergansers staying away from the other ducks and kept close to the fence.

One morning I was heading to the Oldsmar fishing pier and I caught these guys right before the pier. “A spoonbill, a woodstork and a great egret walk into a bar…..”

I was heading to the fishing pier because I had seen an eagle sitting in the tree in the parking lot there back in October. I hadn’t seen him since until this day. He was cruising around the fishing pier before taking off over the houses nearby.