Tag: wood thrush

Migration has started

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Spring migration was just starting in early April (although a few birds have trickled through since mid-March) so I was up before sunrise and made it down to Fort Desoto just as the sun was coming up (the park doesn’t open until 7am so right now we can’t get in before that). I took this on the bridge before the park.

I went straight to East Beach since I heard there was some birds on the trails at that part of the park. Before heading down the trail I stopped on the beach to catch the sun coming up over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I took all of these with my phone. I figured even if I didn’t see a lot of birds I at least saw an amazing sunrise.

A wood thrush was easy to find on the ground.

Black and white warblers were all over the park.

A rose breasted grosbeak was eating a berry but stayed pretty hidden.

There was a prothonotary warbler right on the trail and he was not shy. He popped out of the bushes and landed right in front of me and seemed to wait for me to take his picture.

My 2nd ever worm eating warbler (the first was in my backyard in 2022). He was a little shy and I waited a while for him to come out in the open.

A prairie warbler.

Hooded warblers were all over the park and it’s usual for them to be the first migrating birds we see here.

I got a brief glimpse of a Kentucky warbler. He was shy and we looked for him for a long time. He looks a lot like the hooded warbler but he has black under his eye instead of under his chin. His head has bumps on it as well so it looks like it’s textured.

I stopped at the gulf fishing pier before leaving and found these two female red breasted mergansers hanging out in front of the stones along the wall.

It’s always fun when spring migration is in full swing although a little exhausting. Getting up early and running around looking for new birds. No rest until mid-May. I always see lots of old birding friends and make some new ones during this time. People in the area thought this spring’s migration was a bit of a dud but I thought it great and saw 5 new birds. More on those later.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

End of my spring migration at Fort DeSoto

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography22 Comments

I don’t know what this is. It looks bigger than a yellow rumped warbler.  It was bathing at the fountain. Could it be a female American redstart?  It looks like one from the Stokes Birding Guide. If so, it’s my first one.

Orange eating an orange. Baltimore oriole at one of the fruit feeders.

I think this is a wood thrush. He was sitting on the bottom of the fountain.

My first and only indigo bunting shot. I saw a few others from really far away but this was the only one that got close to us at the fountain.

Starling taking a bath.

I was told this is a yellow warbler. This was my first sighting of one. I agree with Deb’s comment on this one. It looks more like a female hooded warbler than a yellow one. It’s still a lifer either way.

About a tenth of the crowd that was gathering at the mulberry woods at Fort Desoto. There’s a small open field with a short stone fountain in the middle. Everyone was standing around waiting for birds to land on the fountain. I only had my long lens that morning so I could only get a small smattering of the crowd that was there.

I can say I was there! Two weekends during the 2012 spring migration at Fort Desoto. I met tons of people. Learned a lot of new little birds. And took thousands of bad pictures. Ron at Pinellas Birds said the week before Memorial Day that it was winding down. There were still a few late migraters coming through though so I’ll still head out and keep my eyes open. Now I can’t wait until fall migration.

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