Nesting season was in full swing.

On July 5, 2025August 5, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

In early April I made the first trip of the bird nesting season to the north Tampa bird rookery. The small island in the middle of the big pond looked the same as last year. The cypress tree closest to land had fallen down and was laying on it’s side in the pond. The only remaining tree was in the far back and it was full of cormorants nesting.

The great egrets were busy flirting and showing off their breeding feathers. Even though there were a lot of babies many of them were just getting started.

I could easily see two great egret nests. One had chicks a little older than the other.

Some of the other nests had some babies screaming for Mom to feed them.

This nest had some older babies and Mom was busy feeding them. In the last shot you can see some regurgitated fish sliding down Mom’s throat and into the baby’s beak.

Wood storks staying cool in the heat of the afternoon.

A full wood stork nest with three babies. The one laying down on the left looks much younger than his siblings.

An older wood stork baby posing for the camera.

Where are all of the birds?

On August 3, 2024July 25, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

I made one last trip to the bird rookery in north Tampa in early May. I was planning to go back again at the end of the month but never made it back. Above is a phone shot of most of the little island. I know I’ve said this many times but it feels like there are less and less birds nesting here each year. The island has not changed sizes. It hasn’t been disturbed. Are there less and less birds or is there another rookery somewhere else that they are going to now that we don’t know about?

I saw very few baby wood storks. Much less than this time last year. I did see several couples still flirting and mating. Maybe they are all just later this year.

The little blue herons hadn’t started nesting yet.

I did see several anhinga nests in the back. These guys were a little older. Anhingas usually nest early in spring.

There were a few great egret nests with babies. These were the youngest ones I saw.

This Mom was busy feeding her babies.

These babies were almost as big as Mom and were quite a handful when she was trying to feed them.

I did not see any cattle egrets at the rookery this year. While they usually nest a little later they are starting to build nests by now so it was a bummer not to see them with their bright colored breeding beaks and feathers. There were about half the glossy ibis than last year. They nest in the back of the island so those babies aren’t visible until they are much older anyway. By this time last year there were a lot of juveniles in front of the island waiting to be fed. We’ll see what next year brings.

Last visit to the bird rookery this year.

On August 28, 2021August 2, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

After leaving Lettuce Lake Park in north Tampa, I stopped by the bird rookery before heading home for one last look before it got too hot. It was fun seeing all of the juvenile wood storks almost grown up. It’s amazing how fast baby birds grow up. A few months later and they are as big as Mom. The young ones still have that pretty pale pink beak and a little fuzz on their heads.

Many of this spring’s early babies were already flying over to the side of the pond across from the mangrove island.

There were 3 snowy egret babies right in the front of the island. They were screaming for Mom who was close by.

High up in the tree a young cormorant was waiting for Mom to cough up the regurgitated fish.

On the way out of the neighborhood I saw a pair of sandhill cranes and stopped for a few minutes to get the above shots.

Back at the nursery

On July 23, 2021July 24, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I stopped in again at the wood stork rookery in north Tampa in mid-May. The small island in the middle of a medium pond was still packed with birds nesting. Wood storks were busy flying in back to the nest.

Most of the babies were almost grown at this point. They have pretty faint yellow and pink beaks when they are young.

Many of them were practicing their wing flapping. Getting ready for that first flight.

“Whadda you want?”

I saw a lady get out of her car near the end of the pond and I thought maybe she was taking pictures from farther away but then I realized she had dumped bread on the bank to feed the birds. She dumped and drove off. I would loved to have been able to tell her that old bread is bad for the birds. They should be eating bugs and fish. By the time I walked over to the area the bread had been snatched up by the wood storks.

Why the storks bring the babies!

On May 15, 2021May 3, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I think this was the youngest baby at the rookery. You could just barely make out the baby’s head at the bottom of mom’s beak.

Most of the other nests had babies that were pretty grown up. For some reason these guys were wet and dirty. Dad must have brought back some wet dirty moss to replensh the nest.

Moms were busy tending to the nests and babies all over the tiny island in the middle of this neighborhood pond.

Looks like this Mom had only one baby. Some had two or three.

Zooming in, these guys were all white and fluffy.

The annual trip to the Tampa rookery

On May 13, 2021May 3, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

As soon as I got to the bird rookery in north Tampa in late April I look over and see a muscovy duck family resting in the shade. I snapped a couple of pictures and then realized they see me. They all popped up and came running over to me. “Not going to happen guys” I said. I’m not feeding them although I’m sure people who live in the nearby neighborhood do. After they realized I wasn’t going to feed them they got in the water and took off for a swim.

The wood storks were flying into the pond right near where I was standing and while getting a sip of water this one found a good stick to take back to the nest. He’s looking at me like “What do you think of my stick?”. I’m thinking “She’s going to kick you off the nest if you come back with that tiny stick.”

Wood storks were constantly flying over to surrounding trees and grabbing sticks to bring back to the nest.

True love is hard to find.

This guy was being lazy. Just watching all of the busy birds go by.

Growing old quickly

On August 1, 2020August 1, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

The young wood storks have such interesting faces. They lose that hint of blue and pink in their beaks when they get older. It’s a shame they look so old so fast. There were a lot of young ones at the rookery in north Tampa back in early June. Many were practicing their wing flaps.

This young one was eating something gunky. That orange gunk doesn’t look like regurgitated fish.

The adults were busy going about their day. The one in the bottom picture looks like he has paint across his back. Maybe he brushed up against something. He seemed okay.

A face only a mother could love

On June 27, 2020June 27, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

Woods storks are listed as an uncommon bird on the All About Birds page and are listed as federally threatened. They are fairly common here in the Tampa bay area. I see them pretty regularly at most of the parks that I visit. There is a rookery in Tampa that has a large population of them nesting. I love going to see them in the late spring and watch them raising their babies. The babies are just as homely as the parents. These were taken in late April.

Many of the storks were still flirting and building nests,

Love is never having to say you’re sorry….

On May 2, 2020May 2, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

for bringing home fish for every meal. The wood storks at the rookery in north Tampa were flirting and making nests. Some couples were already sitting on eggs.

This couple, one of many, were getting busy making babies.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters.

The old trees at the Reserve

On February 21, 2019February 17, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I was looking through some old folders recently and came across some pictures I had taken of the great old trees at Circle B Bar Reserve. Some have changed a lot, some have not changed at all and some are gone. The ones above were taken in December, 2010. They were full of wood storks and the marsh was full of coots. We rarely see coots there now.