Two trips to the wetlands.

Posted on March 28, 2024 by dinajohnston

I heard there was a lark sparrow at Roosevelt Wetlands in north St. Pete. I have only seen one once years ago at Fort Desoto. The above was not it. The above is a common winter visitor, a yellow-rumped warbler. There were a lot of them at the wetlands and they are not shy and will pose for a pictures.

The above is also not a lark sparrow. He’s an uncommon western kingbird. I haven’t seen one since 2019. He flew right in front of the crowd looking for the lark and posed on a big stick.

Again, not the lark. The above is a Savannah sparrow, a fairly common bird. I did not find the lark on this visit so I came back the next week.

I think this is rubberweed. It was all over the trail.

I didn’t see the northern harrier on my last trip but she showed up on this one and flew right by me.

She was flying back and forth along the ditch in front of the landfill next door. She caught something and stopped to enjoy her snack.

Several times she came really close to the fence. Harriers only spend the winters here so she’s probably gone back up north by now.

It was a beautiful morning in December when I was looking for the lark sparrow that I never did see. Maybe next time.

Colors of the rainbow

Posted on June 1, 2019 by dinajohnston

Yellow warbler.

My first blue winged warbler with a snack.

Lots of indigo buntings at the park this year.

Female indigo buntings don’t have any blue at all.

Scarlet tanagers have black wings.

Orchard orioles

Eastern kingbirds.

A rare western kingbird.

A painted bunting foraging for food on the ground.

We had great fall out the 3rd weekend in April for migrating birds. After a storm on Friday afternoon, I headed out to Fort Desoto park to see if any of the spring migrating birds had stopped by for a rest. Everyone else had the same idea. Even though there were a ton of people at the park there were lots of birds as well. It’s always fun running into old friends at the park in the spring and having more eyes to spot birds.This was the busiest weekend this spring and I spent most of the day there with lots more pictures to come.

Rare birds and common ones

Posted on July 23, 2018 by dinajohnston

I hadn’t seen cedar waxwings in years. They are somewhat rare here and only a few come through during spring migration. I saw one hiding deep in the bushes and was a little bummed he was not visible. Later in my walk a flock of them quickly flew by and one stopped for a few second right in front of me. They are beautiful birds.

A rare western kingbird. I’ve only seen these once before in the area in the last 9 years. At first I thought it was a great crested flycatcher which are more common but realized later it was a kingbird.