White pelican close ups

On April 19, 2025May 11, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I made it back to Crescent Lake Park near downtown St. Pete in mid-January. I remembered to bring my camera with me this time because I was pretty sure the white pelicans were still there. They wouldn’t stay much longer if the weather warmed up.

A handful were swimming around in the middle of the lake.

A lot of them were still hanging out under the big banyan tree at one corner of the lake where the pipes come out. I’m assuming because of the shade from the tree (although it was cloudy the morning I was there) and the fact that the tree area is fenced off to keep people off the damaged old historic tree so there wouldn’t be any people letting their dogs get close to the bank.

A cormorant flies by.

Eventually most of the pelicans made their way out to the middle of the lake.

A ring-neck duck came close to the edge.

A ring billed gull was also close.

Two male grackles were having a conversation on the ball field sign. They might have been fighting over a lady or both showing off for one.

A stop at Swan Lake on the way home

On April 27, 2024April 16, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

While my sisters were visiting in late February we drove over to Disney Spring early for some shopping (mostly looking though and getting a good walk in) and lunch. We decided to break up our 2 hour drive home by stopping at Lake Morton (aka Swan Lake) in Lakeland and get out to look around. There were only 2 baby swans from a black swan couple but there were a lot of nests.

Redheads and ring neck ducks are easy to find in the winter. There were several that were swimming close to the edge of the lake.

A young ring billed gull sits on top of one of the swan food feeders that sit on the edge of the lake. He looked pretty with his matching pink feet and beak.

The usual skittish wood ducks were coming close to the edge of the lake as well. One walked right up on the grass in front of me.

Balance act.

The small pod of white pelicans were still there, napping and preening on the brick wall.

The pink trumpet tree was in full bloom.

Showing off on Lake Morton

On May 7, 2018May 8, 2018 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

Lots of pretty swans on Lake Morton.

The cormorants were getting all their “ducks” all lined up.

In a flash, I saw the male northern shoveler flying away. He was very skittish. Then a ring necked duck came in for a landing.

A lady was feeding the ducks some cracked corn (which is what they should be eating instead of bread).

Drying off on the lake.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Lots of quacks.

On January 9, 2017January 10, 2017 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

Lots of pied grebes at Crescent Lake Park.

Lots of mallards trying to sleep.

Lots of friends sticking close together.

Lots of variety.

Lots of ring necked ducks and lesser scaup.

So many different ducks at Crescent Lake Park near downtown St. Pete.

“They paved paradise and put a parking lot”

On December 19, 2016December 19, 2016 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Late in the afternoon, all of the deer were napping deep in the woods. I could see a few of them from the boardwalk but they were trying to hide.

A little blue heron walking around near the boardwalk.

A lone ring neck duck in one of the smaller ponds.

I was looking around the boardwalk for gators and saw the above instead.

Furry faces in the trees.

The cypress trees are starting to turn.

A hawk on the way home.

I stopped by the horse farm on the way home to see if the eagles were back. They abandoned the nest in the old tree last year and did not have babies. Some say the old dead tree was rotting and about to fall over and that’s why they left. Most think it was due to new houses that were going up around the horse farm. The farm was surrounded by trees and last winter a developer came in and wiped out all of the tree and started a new neighborhood. I didn’t expect to find them and was thinking they were gone forever. As I was driving out a different way, I saw the above on a utility tower. There’s an old osprey nest in the tower. Only time will tell if they take over the osprey nest and have babies here. It’s sad to think they are out of that great tree but at least they would still be having families.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

Swans, ducks and geese. Oh my.

On July 30, 2016July 30, 2016 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

The usual fun animals at Lake Morton in downtown Lakeland. That last shot shouldn’t be happening. Birds should not fill up on bread. If you’re going to feed them, at least bring corn. Or bugs but I doubt you want to carry around bugs to feed them.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters

Duck action at Lake Morton

On January 18, 2016January 19, 2016 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

An unusual looking hybrid. Looks like a cross between a mallard and a muscovy duck.

A baby mallard in December!

A coot and a gull fighting over bread that someone threw in the lake.

Duck butts!

A lone female bufflehead. Not a common duck here.

A ring neck duck taking a bath.

Drying off.

~~I cannot figure out what kind of duck this is. Is it a hybrid of some sort? I’ve only seen one at the lake. That pink beak and the pink legs are amazing as well as the eyes.~~

I found out today that this is a Coscoroba swan. It is the smallest of all swans and comes from South America. The city of Lakeland bought a pair for the lake last January. At this point there is only one at the lake.

There are so many different ducks at Lake Morton in downtown Lakeland. They are known for having swans on the lake but there are a lot more ducks there and so many different ones. It’s fun just to walk around and look at all the duck action going on.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

Finding fuzzballs around the lake.

On May 10, 2014May 10, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography12 Comments

I think that lizard isn’t going to make it.

I thought all of the winter ducks had gone north by now but this ring necked duck was still hanging around.

Black swan preening.

At first glance I didn’t think there were any baby swans yet. All of the moms were sitting down on the nest. Then a swan got up to move around and I could just barely make out the little fuzzballs under her. They still looked wet so they must have been born that morning. It was around lunchtime when I stopped by the lake. She still had two more to hatch.