Pretty flowers from my trip to Bok Tower Gardens in May.
Tiny critters on the flowers.
Butterflies were posing nicely for me.
The flower beds were bursting with color!
The birds were not plentiful this trip. The only thing I saw was some cardinals on the feeder. I was hoping to see some migrating birds but even the usual painted buntings had left.
Folly Farms in Safety Harbor was all decorated for Christmas with lights everywhere. I was there early in the morning and many of the lights were still on. It was weird looking for birds and butterflies with a tshirt on and Christmas lights everywhere. The farm has a community garden and someone had sunflowers blooming in their square, in the middle of December! I could only find a few butterflies in the butterfly garden even though it was still blooming.
The only bird I found at the farm was a hermit thrush. I had not seen one since 2018 and I had just seen one in my backyard before finding this one at the farm. I had to wonder if it was the same one from my yard even though I was 15 minutes away.
I stopped by the Safety Harbor fishing pier before heading home and found some black capped (or nanday) parakeets in the parking lot. They were eating seeds from the top of the trees. They blend in well in the trees and I might not have seen them if they hadn’t been screaming.
A manatee was close to the pier but the dolphins were pretty far out in the bay.
Watching the ibis feed off tiny crabs in the water.
Pelicans were cruising by the pier.
There were several osprey out diving for fish in the bay but only one came close enough to try and get shots. He swooped down and grabbed that fish so fast and then went the other way. I was hoping he would fly towards me. Oh well. I’ll try again.
Yellow and orange from my trip to the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo last month.
The large cactus in the front of the gardens had big blooms on them . The details inside the bloom are amazing. The cactus also had this big pink ball which I assume are the blooms before they open up. Or, maybe they are the seed pod after the bloom dies off?
Little critters. Bees had taken over that bird house.
I found another face in the tree along the boardwalk.
I stopped by and said hello to the resident wood ducks.
After leaving the botanical gardens, I stopped at McGough Park to see if there were any fall migrating birds. I didn’t see many birds but the turtle pond was full of turtles taking a sun nap.
I didn’t plant these sunflowers on purpose. I didn’t think we had the right kind of soil since our dirt is so sandy. Of all of the years with a bird feeder, this is the first time I had a rogue sunflower seed take root. The double one came up first but wasn’t very big. The bigger one came up right next to our petunia pot a few days later. I think an animal, maybe a squirrel, ate it after a few days. It was all torn up on the ground near the feeder.
A macro fly on the leaf.
Taking some shots around the backyard with my macro lens.
I had to get even more shots of my hibiscus plant.
One night I went out to move the garbage can to the street and saw this black racer cutting across my driveway. I was glad I had my phone in my pocket so I could quickly snap this.
We’ve had a lot of duck families cruising past our dock. This was one of the first in early May.
More pictures from my trip to Sweetfield Farm for the sunflower festival this past summer. So many little critters hanging around the fruit and flowers.
Close up shots of the sunflowers from my trip to Sweetfields Farm during sunflower season. So many bright yellow sunflower faces!