The sun and pink birds on the causeway

On February 11, 2026March 6, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography9 Comments

At the end of October I was at the Dunedin causeway for a walk under the clouds. The tide was really low and you could see the different colors of the seaweed and muck that is usually under water.

The sun was trying to peek out and it finally did as I made my way back to the car.

As I was getting in the car I saw some interesting birds in the exposed seaweed so I pulled out my camera and got some shots of the above red knots. I don’t see them often as they usually only pass through the area during migration.

Two roseate spoonbills were also feeding in the seaweed and I spent some time watching them.

I occasionally see spoonbills on the causeway but they don’t stick around long. These guys showed up at the end of my walk and they are usually gone by 8:30am.

A 20 second video of a spoonbill using his funny shaped beak to dig through the muck to find stuff to eat.

Reflections

On December 6, 2025January 3, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

At the end of August I went to Honeymoon Island to look for a fairly rare bird. A Wilson’s Phalarope had been sighted there two days before. There have been sightings of them a few times before in the area and I keep missing them. Their range is west of Mississippi but occasionally one ends up here for a short time. The above are not it, although they are the same shape and size. These are dowitchers and are common here. They were posing nicely for me in a puddle in the parking lot.

Roseate spoonbills were napping in another pond near the bushes and created a pretty reflection.

Another bird that looks like the one I was hoping for but also not it is the lesser yellowlegs. He was feeding along the sand and also created a nice reflection.

There were several kildeer nearby.

After waiting about an hour with several other people looking for the rare bird I took a walk down the beach to get some exercise in.

It was a hot day and soon the beach would be filled with people.

I did not get the rare bird and it wasn’t seen again so it stays on my list of “birds I still haven’t gotten”. I stopped by the nature center before leaving the park and stood out on the elevated deck enjoying the slight breeze up high.

Tiny rare babies growing up on the beach

On August 16, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

It was May 1st and I was back at Fort Desoto Park early. The sun was already up when I drove over the bridge into the park. I had a feeling the oystercatcher eggs might have hatched earlier this week so I wanted to get out on the beach early.

I had a short hike out to the oystercatcher nest but I got distracted by the spoonbills feeding in the tidal pool just off the parking lot. There were also several tricolored herons feeding.

I don’t see yellowlegs here often so I had to stop for a shot of it as well.

I made it out to the nesting area and the babies were already on the move. The area had been roped off so people wouldn’t trample through the nesting area and the parents were feeding the babies inside the roped area. There were three eggs but only two hatched. One hatched late Tuesday, one hatched Wednesday and I was there early Thursday morning.

They were so tiny and hard to spot across the roped off area. They stayed close to the parents as one parent would take off and then come back 5-10 minutes later with food. I was taking these with my 180-600mm zoom lens and they are cropped so they were really far away.

As we waited for the parents to bring in food to the babies we got distracted by the reddish egrets coming by including the white morph one.

Skimmers flying by.

Mom had a juicy piece of food in her beak, maybe a piece of clam.

After a while the babies got tired and plopped down for a long nap so I headed out. There were a handful of photographers there and several bird stewards watching the area so people don’t get too close. The bird stewards are all volunteers and keep watch over the nest and these rare babies while they grow up making sure they are safe from the tourist crowds.

There was an osprey nest in between the beach and the parking lot so I stopped for a few minutes and caught both babies looking at Mom.

Flying off into the sun

On January 2, 2025January 2, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

Spoonbills on my walk at Safety Harbor in at the end of October. They were far out on a spit and were busy preening.

A little blue heron on a broken pier. I had a short walk along the water on the bay and then drove over to the Dunedin causeway for a longer walk on the gulf side.

After my walk on the causeway I noticed the above somewhat rare lesser black backed gull when I was getting in my car. Luckily I had my camera in the car and pulled it out. I don’t see these guys often and realized he had a snack.

He watched me for a short time, wondering if I was going to steal his fish. I stood still next to my car and he started eating again.

Turkey vultures were cruising by him, maybe hoping he would leave the fish?

All of the usual shorebirds were nearby including the black bellied plover in the first shot and dowitchers in the 2nd one.

Pelicans were flying overhead.

Then even more came from the other direction and flew into the sun.

I always love seeing the pelicans fly over. In my head I hear the theme music from the Jurassic Park movies.

Out on the beach before the tourists.

On August 19, 2024October 3, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was early in the morning when I headed to Fort Desoto Park in late May. I had heard there were baby oystercatchers in the lagoon the day before so there was a good chance I could find them somewhere near there. The park opens at 7am and I was over the bridge before the park at 6:55.

I was not alone in my quest. Word gets out fast around this area and there were several other photographers also heading to the lagoon. We didn’t find the oystercatchers there (they are on the move once their babies are born but they couldn’t have gone too far). There were a lot of other great birds in the lagoon though. I snapped a few shots before heading to the north tip. The sun was just coming up over the bushes and you can’t see the lagoon from the other side. There were so many different birds here. Great egrets, a reddish egret, a snowy egret, a tricolored heron, and several spoonbills were all feeding in this swampy corner.

I saw the white morph reddish egret feeding on the way to the north tip. I hadn’t seen this bird since last August and I forget how beautiful and graceful he is.

Boats out on the gulf include a small flat fishing boat and much bigger boats.

I did find the oystercatcher babies but more on them later. Before leaving the park I always stop by the fishing pier to see if I can find anything interesting. This great blue heron had taken a fish from a fisherman and the great egret was trying to steal it from him. The great blue heron swallowed it quickly.

A snowy egret had snatched someone’s bait.

A quick video of the snowy egret being chased by the other birds to steal his snack.

Out on the beach early in the morning before the tourists get here, although it’s a long hike out to the tip and the tourists usually stay close to the parking lot.

Interesting things on the causeway

On January 15, 2024April 15, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Florida animals5 Comments

I was driving out on the Dunedin causeway for a walk early one morning in October when I noticed there were spoonbills at the beginning of the causeway. The tide was low and there wasn’t too many cars around. I pulled over and got my camera from the back. They were busy feeding and ignored me as I walked towards the water. After snapping the above I decided to walk over the first bridge.

The bridge was up and a barge was coming through.

When I got to the other end of the causeway it looked like it might rain. Typical skies here. Rain on the left and sun on the right. I didn’t get rained on this morning.

I got out at the other end of the causeway to walk the 2nd bridge and didn’t take my camera with me, just my phone. I saw these brown headed cowbirds sitting on the rail. Although they aren’t pretty birds they are not very common here. The above was taken with my phone.

As I was heading back to my car I saw something moving in the water and took a video. What was that swimming towards the sea wall? I think it’s manatees. I have seen them here before a few times but they are always far away. I was hoping they would get closer and they must have heard me because they swam right up to me.

They swam right up and hung out along the sea wall for a while. Maybe they were resting. Or looking for food. There’s not really any grass beds at this section of the sea wall. They eventually started swimming to the other side of the bridge and around the corner near the condos. What a treat to see them up close on my walk.

Spoonies and whistlers and eagles, Oh My!

On January 6, 2024December 26, 2023 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

As I was driving down my street on the way to the grocery store early one morning I saw something interesting in one of ponds near my house. A roseate spoonbill was in the pond. I slowed down and realized there was also some black bellied whistling ducks right on the bank of the pond. I was so glad I had left my camera in the car from the day before. I pulled over and got out but stayed next to the car. The groceries were going to have to wait.

The whistlers were juveniles, almost fully grown. Their beaks were not fully pink yet. I wondered if these were the babies I had seen earlier this summer farther down the street. I hadn’t seen them again since that day when they were tiny babies.

I then noticed there were more spoonbills with a few ibis thrown in.

They were all hanging out together. There was only one adult whistler with the bright pink beak. I counted 9 young ones.

I’ve never seen this many spoonbills together in the neighborhood. Usually 2-3 at the most. After snapping a ton of pictures I finally made my way to the store.

A few days later I was leaving to run errands and I saw the eagle couple from the back of the neighborhood.

I drove around to the front of the neighborhood and the other eagle couple were sitting on their nest tower. It was great to see them together and on the nest. I think they are on eggs now so if all goes well there will be babies soon.

Pulling off in a ditch

On September 18, 2021August 23, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I was heading home on a quiet road that was being widened when I saw the bright pink spots in the ditch. The ditch was full of water from the storms and was more like a river at this point. Of course, since I had my camera in the car, I turned around and came back to the spot, pulling of the road. It’s not often you see this many spoonbills hanging out together, even if it was noon and the sun was straight up.

The angle of the bright light was bad and it felt like being in a swamp but I was still determined to spend some time watching these beautiful spoonies going about their lunch. A tricolored heron walked up and the spoonies ignored him as he cruised right through their party.