More on my morning walk at the farmer’s market in Ybor City in Tampa. There were baby chicks running around everywhere at the small park near downtown Tampa. I guess the chickens in the streets brings charm to the old part of town kind of like it does in Key West.
Some of the statues and charm in the Ybor neighborhood.
In July, I decided to take a break from walking around in the parks and headed to downtown Tampa to take a walk along the riverfront. I headed out early since it was going to be a hot day. Not many people out that early. Just me and a few joggers when I first got there. The downside is that the sun was behind the buildings so it made sunny shots a challenge. The upside was that I was walking in the shade for the first part.
Along the Tampa convention center.
Lots of activities on the water. You can rent boats of all sizes or take a water taxi around the area.
The old Cass street bridge that was built in 1926. Everyone is wondering when they are going to tear it down. It adds a bit of history to the area even if it’s an eyesore.
When I got back to Riverwalk Park, they had turned on the water fountain. I really wanted to walk through there.
Wood storks are born looking like old souls. These babies are only a few months old and already look like an old man. I stopped by the bird rookery in north Tampa in mid-April and the little island in the middle of the small lake was full of older babies. Wood storks were the predominant birds with a few great egret and cattle egrets nesting as well.
This rookery is so busy that the families were all on top of each other.
Triplets were posing for me.
Parents were back and forth bringing in food and more padding for the nests.
I think these were the youngest ones there. All still fuzzy and white.
Wood stork babies seem to be more quiet than great egret babies. There wasn’t as much clacking going on.Since the island is in the middle of the lake, these were all taken with my 300mm lens and cropped up.
Linking to Wednesday Around the World.
From my driveway in late January. Saw this when I got home and thought it would be cool to try and get the moon coming up over Tampa the next night.
Tampa across the bridge. No moon coming up so I headed into Tampa.
I was hoping to get a shot of the big super blue blood moon rising above the Tampa skyline in late January so I brought my camera and headed over to a tall parking garage just off the bridge after work. On the moon side there was a cloud bank so i wasn’t going to get a shot of the moon just over the city.
I turned around and walked over to the other side of the parking garage and saw the above. A plane coming in for a landing near the Tampa airport just as the sun was going down. I stood for a while watching the planes come in. It was a beautiful cool night.
Sun’s all gone. Sometimes when life gives you lemons, turn around.
More pictures from my walk around the yacht basin at Davis Islands in Tampa.
Eventually a storm was moving in so I headed back to my car.
Shots from my phone of downtown Tampa.
Flowers on my walk.
So many different things to see around the tip of Davis Islands where the small airport and yacht basin ends the island. From tiny boats, really big boats and tug boats the variety can keep you busy watching the sights all morning.
In one corner of the island, there’s a small dog beach next to the private airport. There wasn’t many dogs on the beach early one recent Saturday morning. I think it was just too hot. Even the water was warm.
I think this is my favorite. This sailboat had a handmade boat lift for it’s own rowboat.
A hot Saturday morning in late July.
I peaked out the window and saw some dark clouds moving in. I grabbed my phone and ran out to the backyard. I kept hearing crashing coming from the front yard so I ran around to the front and got the shot of the lightning. The night storms have been crazy lately in the beginning of August.
The next night I drove home in pouring rain and by the time I got home the sky looked like the above in the backyard.
On the way home from work I stopped at a parking deck right off the bridge to take the above. Looking towards downtown Tampa, it was beautiful blue skies. When I turned around, the big storm was moving across the bay. I had just driven through that.
All of the above were taking with my phone.
There’s a new walking and biking bridge in town. They built a pedestrian bridge on the Courtney Campbell Causeway next to the car bridge. The causeway connects Tampa to Clearwater. I stopped for a walk after work. It was around 6:30pm but was getting dark from the storm clouds moving in.
You could see it raining over across the bay towards south Tampa. I didn’t see any lightning.
Zooming in on Tampa from the top of the bridge. This is extremely cropped.
It’s not a long bridge. I walked across it twice in about 40 minutes. It was starting to thunder so I headed home.
Before pulling out at the end of the causeway, I turned around and took this. Not much of a view of the sun. At least the clouds kept it cooler and there was a strong wind. It was a nice walk after work and I didn’t have to drive out of my way to get there.
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Baby tricolored heron looking at me.
Was he giving me the peace sign? No, just scratching an itch.
At first they were quiet. Then the screaming started. They must have known mom was close by.
Mom shows up at the nest and chaos starts.
Screaming goes on.
Then begging.
I stopped by the zoo in mid-May to see if there were any more spoonbills hanging around. No spoonbills but there were a few nests with baby tricolored herons and blue herons. All were in the bushes and palm trees over the alligator exhibit.
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When I started walking down the trails, I didn’t notice the pink at first. It was only when I turned around and saw the sun coming through the plants that I noticed the color. The trails were covered in this.
I saw this kingfisher hovering over a pond across the trail.
I think this was a yellow rumped warbler. The trail was full of these little guys.
Red shoulder hawk sitting on the wire across the road.
At the top of a small mound, you could see Tampa from far away. I was at least an hour away from the city.
I had heard about Cockroach Bay for several years but never made it there until recently. I went looking for the red-breasted nuthatches that had been sighted there but did not find them. I was joined by several other birders and all we found were tons of yellow rumped and pine warblers. The trails were pretty quiet that morning. It reminded me a bit of my favorite place, Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Since I have to drive the long way around the bay, it took me longer to get to Cockroach bay so I’ll probably not head back there too often. Didn’t see any cockroaches there. The story is that early explorers saw the horseshoe crabs from a distance and thought they were big cockroaches. The name was never changed.
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