Hanging out at the beach.

Posted on May 16, 2019 by dinajohnston

A beautiful morning at Fort Desoto out on the beach.

Watching all of the big boats go by, wondering about that life at sea. I recently started following a guy who pilots the big boats in and out of Tampa bay on Instagram. It’s cool to see his pictures from the boat. I bet he has some great stories to tell. You can find him at Tampabaypilot.

It’s always fun to see the dolphins swimming around the fishing pier and the little terns diving for fish.

The cactus all over the park are blooming.

Brett and I spent a Sunday morning in April just hanging out on the beach. With work, chores and family we don’t get there as much as we use to.

SkyWatch Friday

Early morning at Fort Desoto

Posted on April 4, 2019 by dinajohnston

Terns, willets and laughing gulls out on the beach.

A lone prairie warbler on the trail.

Someone caught a creepy crab while fishing on the pier.

A common sight around the fishing pier, a snowy egret hitching a ride.

The morning started off cloudy, looking like it was going to rain but the sun came out before noon.

SkyWatch Friday

Watching Bambi grow up

Posted on November 7, 2016 by dinajohnston

A few weeks after my trip to Chesnut Park in the rain after work, I headed back for another walk on a Saturday morning. The babies are usually hiding in the woods on Saturday mornings since the park is pretty busy. I was lucky to see the above hanging close to mom and wandering around near the parking area in the back of the park. There was a male close by as well. In that last picture, the little one turned to look at me as if to say “What’s that furry thing with an acorn, Lady?”

Ants were hanging out on the flowers.

A young red shoulder hawk was hunting near my car.

An osprey flying by with breakfast.

The usual moorhens near the dock.

A tern hovering over the lake.

A Saturday morning walk at Chesnut Park.

Gulls and terns on the beach.

Posted on December 27, 2014 by dinajohnston

The ring billed gulls are back for the winter.

I caught them napping on a recent trip to Fort Desoto.

I think that’s a plover sleeping in front of the gulls. He looks so tiny compared to the bigger gulls.

Tern taking a bath.

Drying off. This is either a common tern or a Forester’s tern.

A nice late afternoon on the beach.

Sunshine Skyway bridge – Skywatch Friday

Posted on October 9, 2014 by dinajohnston

Wood stork hanging out in the water.

He gave me a glance and then went back to checking out the water for food.

Terns and a gull knee-deep in the water.

Taking a bath.

Taken with my wide-angle lens. The birds were lined up on the beach in front of the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

Farther back, the bridge off in the distance.

Taken from in the water, the sky looks bluer here than the picture above.

This was a panorama taken with my phone. You can just barely see the bridge in the distance. This is the view from the East Beach turnaround.

I headed out to Fort Desoto in late September. It was a beautiful morning. Luckily I had my wide-angle lens in the car because there wasn’t a lot of birds around. The clouds were beautiful against the blue sky and the rain held out until much later in the afternoon. By then I was napping on the couch.

Check out more sky pictures at Skywatch Friday

Shorebirds at Fort Desoto in July

Posted on August 11, 2014 by dinajohnston

A marbled godwit trying to sleep in the middle of dowitchers.

A lost oystercatcher. “Excuse me, can someone tell me where the restroom is?”

A few willets mixed in.

Giving me the eye.

A shorebird convention.

“Can you please keep your peeping down? Us oystercatchers are trying to sleep.”

A young laughing gull.

A “loud as usual” laughing gull.

Dowitchers busy looking for breakfast.

Taking a break from the crowd.

I think this is a Forester’s tern in non-breeding colors. Could also be a common tern.

Shorebirds are starting to move through the area. For the past month, there’s been almost no birds at the north beach marsh at Fort Desoto. When I went in late July, the marsh area was starting to fill up with birds. Mostly dowitchers, willets and marbled godwits. It was the usual hot sunny perfect morning on the beach.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday Our World Tuesday Graphic

Also, check out more birds at Paying Ready Attention for

Late December walk at Circle B Bar Reserve

Posted on January 20, 2014 by dinajohnston

Even surrounding a turkey vulture with yellow flowers cannot make him attractive.

Black vulture convention.

This is the first time I’ve seen a Wilson’s snipe at Circle B Bar Reserve. He was hiding in a small puddle out in the marsh.

The usual limpkin with a snail shot.

Tern. It’s weird to see seabirds hanging out in central Florida. Shouldn’t they be at the beach?

The first great blue heron’s nest of the season at Circle B. The nest is several trees over and much higher than last year’s nest. I’ve since heard there is at least one baby poking his head up.

This was all the way across the lake but that fish the anhinga had caught was too big to pass up and not at least try to take a shot.

Look at those feet!

Cool caterpillar on a weed.

It was right after Christmas on a Friday morning. I had just dropped my sister off at the airport for a 7am flight and headed out to Circle B Bar Reserve for a long hike. I had a few days before my hubby’s family came down for New Year’s week. The weather was cool. The first under 80 degree day we’d had in a week. But, the sun wasn’t out and it looked like it would rain any minute. The rain held off but I had to crank up my ISO to get any good light to take pictures. I’m starting to feel like a jinx on yucky weather there. Cloudy on the last 4 trips. Maybe January will be my month, sunny and 70.

Check out more pictures at Our World Tuesday Our World Tuesday Graphic

Also, check out more birds at Paying Ready Attention for

My first yellow-headed blackbird and some boring other birds

Posted on February 17, 2013 by dinajohnston

A horrible picture of my first sighting of a yellow-headed blackbird. Birders had been posting about seeing this fairly rare bird here in a neighbor almost an hour from my house for a few weeks. He had only been sighted late in the day so I finally headed out there on a recent Sunday afternoon while hubby was watching football. I looked around for an hour and didn’t see him so I left and ran over to Medard Park which is close by for a quick walk over the boardwalk. I headed back to the pond to look for the rare bird again and after looking for almost 2 hours, he showed up right before dark. And, he was right in the middle of a pond so this is extremely cropped.

On my way into Medard Park, I see a few vultures eating an armadillo.

I think this is a caspian tern, just coming out of the water.

This anhinga was catching bait fish right below the boardwalk. Since I had my fixed lens I couldn’t zoom in and this was all I got of her. The fish looks nice and tasty!

Due to the overabundance of apple snails, the park is full of limpkins.

Great blue heron shaking off some water.

This alligator was laying in the pond in the neighborhood where I saw the yellow-headed blackbird. How’d you like to walk your dog around that thing? Yes, people were out walking their dogs around the pond while I was there.

So this is what I do when Hubby is watching football (or playing golf). Drive around town looking for birds. It was too nice an afternoon to be indoors doing chores (which is what I should have been doing). The chores usually wait until a weeknight after work when it’s dark anyway.

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