A two park morning

On May 13, 2024June 4, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I was out at Largo Nature Preserve on a foggy morning in early March. I didn’t expect to see anything new but you never know. I saw a mallard across the golf course that sits next to the preserve.

There were also 2 Canadian geese on the course. I haven’t seen any since last year.

The limpkins were looking for breakfast. After a quick walk I left and stopped at the Roosevelt Wetlands to see if there was anything there.

As soon as I got out of the car at the wetlands I saw 2 northern flickers on a utility pole. I looked around for a nest but they stayed on the pole or wire for a while. These may have been 2 females.

The blanket flower was coming back from the cold spell and starting to fill out along the trail.

A pair of northern shovelers were sitting on the bank.

The usual birds were there including a limpkin and great egret.

As I walk down the trail I could see tons of birds hovering over the nearby waste plant. I think the bigger one in the top was an eagle.

Towards the end of the trail I could a lot of turkey vultures. It didn’t look like they had something to eat so they may have just been resting.

A young juvenile eagle flew right over (I took this into the sun) and headed past the trees.

I saw something moving around on the side of the landfill. I realized it was a coyote. This was the first time I have seen a coyote in Florida. I know there are tons of them here and people have seen them in my neighborhood (mostly at night) but I have not seen one here. I have seen them in Utah and Colorado but this was my first Florida one. He was far away and ran along the ridge for a few minutes before disappearing.

Vultures and strawberries!

On March 4, 2019March 5, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, Tampa bay sights3 Comments

Not much to see on an early morning walk at Lettuce Lake Park in north Tampa in late January. Not many birds but tons of turkey vultures hanging around.

You can really tell it’s winter here with all of the leaves gone from the cypress trees that line the lake. And by winter, I mean I didn’t need more than a long sleeve tshirt to keep me warm.

Before heading home, I stopped at Medard Park to see if there was anything there since I hadn’t been in a long time. It was quiet there as well. A great blue heron preening was all that I could find.

Medard Park is in Plant City, in the middle of “strawberry” country. Hillsborough county produces around 15% of the nation’s strawberries with over 11,000 acres. Chances are if you are eating strawberries in the winter, they came from here. There’s a farm right outside of the park and I pulled over for a few minutes and took a couple of shots of the almost-ready berries.