A spring morning out

Posted on May 15, 2023 by dinajohnston

The water around the Safety Harbor fishing pier was really low the morning I was there in mid-March. There were a lot of shorebirds far out on a tiny spit. A few black bellied plovers, red knots and dowitchers were mixed in with tons of willets, gulls and terns.

Heading around the edge of some mangroves I could just make out 3 Canadian geese.

Several manatees were coming up for air.

A red-winged blackbird posing on the mangroves.

I stopped by Folly Farms on the way home. Lots of little critters there.

I rarely see butterflies mating.

Shorebirds at the beach

Posted on January 5, 2021 by dinajohnston

These birds are not social distancing even outside. There were so many crammed into this tiny spit at low tide. Mostly terns and gulls in the front but all of the brown in the far back were red knots.

There were lots of different shorebirds early in November at Fort Desoto. Several times something spooked them and most of them took off.

I turned around and saw these marbled godwits fighting.

Willets and dowitchers on the shoreline on Outback Key.

A great egret came in for a landing right in front of me.

One of my favorite spots at the north beach.

A storm was moving in so it was time to go home.

Birds on the beach during red tide

Posted on November 3, 2018 by dinajohnston

There were few birds out on the beach at Fort Desoto when I visited during the peak of the red tide algae bloom. The few there were busy eating breakfast. Some were eating the dead sea life that had washed up on shore. I didn’t see any birds acting sick during this trip. Volunteers were out on the beach every day looking for sick birds that could be affected by eating too much of the dead fish. I kept yelling “Don’t eat that.” but they weren’t listening.

A cormorant and osprey were fighting over a lamp-post on the pier.

Even the crows were eating the dead fish. The park rangers kept raking up the shoreline but the dead fish kept washing up on shore.

Royal terns in the air.

The sandbar spit across the channel was full of birds.

Still a beautiful day out at Fort Desoto.

Wildlife in “The Burg”

Posted on February 26, 2018 by dinajohnston

There’s always lots of fun critters at Crescent Lake park near downtown St. Pete.

I caught this ibis trying to eat a frog in the middle of the road.

The fungus on this old tree looks like icing on a cake.

I found a few white pelicans floating around the downtown St. Pete sea wall.

Things at the small beach area on the bay side of St. Petersburg (know as The Burg) in late December.

Honeymoon Island beach before the tourists get here.

Posted on April 20, 2017 by dinajohnston

After walking the nature trail at Honeymoon Island State Park, I headed over to the beach to see if there were any shorebirds hanging around.

The usual birds were there: marbled godwits, royal terns and dowitchers.

The waves were splashing over the jetties. It was fun to be out in one of the last cool windy days before the heat sets in (and the tourists).

A beach in downtown St. Pete?

Posted on January 11, 2016 by dinajohnston

A few monk parakeets were flying around the parking lot.

It was low tide on the beach and very few people were there so the shorebirds were napping. Although, something kept spooking them and they would all take off flying in a circle and then come land in the same spot.

There were two white pelicans floating around in the area around the beach. They were hanging out with a bunch of cormorants. They stayed pretty far out in the water so these were all extremely cropped.

I rarely go the tiny beach next to downtown St. Pete. It’s usually pretty busy and there’s a big public swimming pool in the parking lot. I was in the area so I stopped and talk a quick walk in the sand. It was fairly early in the morning so there wasn’t anyone on the beach. The paved trail along the side of it was packed with people walking, jogging, biking and walking their dogs. It was a normal weekend rush hour traffic on the trails.