Tag: redheads

A cold Tarpon Springs walk

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Tampa bay sights6 Comments

You know it’s winter here when you see the water plant in Tarpon Springs full of ducks. There are mostly redheads but also a few scaup and ring necked ducks mixed in.

The few times I stopped by in the morning they were all sleeping but I caught a few bathing and shaking off one morning.

I saw one female bufflehead in the mix.

Heading farther north to Craig Park I saw 2 eagles sitting on a tower. I pulled over and took the above. When I was heading home later they were still sitting there. I’m assuming they don’t have a nest since both are spending the morning on the tower.

When it’s cold the bayou in Craig Park fills up with manatees staying warm.

All was quiet and calm the morning I was there in early January. The boats were still in the water from the Epiphany celebration a few days earlier where the high school boys dive in and try to be the one to retrieve a cross thrown in the bayou. The celebration (in remembrance of the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordon river) is over 100 years old. I attended it back in 2022 and you can read about it in my post here.

SkyWatch Friday

Ducks and humps

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals3 Comments

I was heading north to Tarpon Springs for a walk and decided to stop by the water reclamation facility to see if the winter ducks were here. There were a lot of ducks but not as many as in past years. The water pond is huge and they really need to be on the far right side to get any shots of them. They were almost in the middle of the pond the morning I stopped. They were mostly redheads and a few lesser scaup mixed in.

There were a few stragglers along the fence and I realized this was a greater scaup with that round bright green head and almost white sides. This was a first for me.

Not too far away were a few lesser scaup as well.

After shooting the ducks I was on my way to Craig Park for a walk around the bayou. Last year at this time I had seen two manatees in the small bayou and was hoping to see some again this year. After a few minutes I saw 2 snouts come up for air.

There were at least 10 manatees in the water. They didn’t come close to the sea wall since the water was low but you could see their backs coming up as they dove back down in the water. Here were 4 different backs. The top one had a lot of algae on it. The 2nd one had only a few barnacles on it. The 3rd one had some algae and a lot of boat scrapes. The last one had a clean back.

There was one with a lot of barnacles on his back but for some reason I only got a picture of his tail. I went back a few weeks later and they were still there. I guess the shallow water in the bayou stays fairly warm so they spend a good part of the coldest months here.