Under the bridge

On August 6, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

I made another trip to Sand Key Park (next to Clearwater Beach) before the end of April hoping to see some new migrating birds. I could see downtown Clearwater across the water from the back of the park.

Before leaving I stopped under the bridge to Clearwater Beach to look for dolphins. This is a known spot for seeing them and while the water was beautiful and calm I didn’t see any this morning.

Looks like someone was getting a sailing lesson out on the intercoastal waterway.

I did find a lot of migrating birds but nothing new. There were several blackpoll warblers that weren’t shy.

A lone male redstart.

It’s always fun to see the juvenile male summer tanagers molting from their baby yellow feathers to their adult red feathers. I’ve only seen one with this mixed color once before. He was hopping all over the trees and busy feeding but not shy.

A few other warblers were a yellow warbler in the top shot and a female Cape May warbler in the bottom shot.

Lots of butterflies along the playground trail.

I saw a lot of this plant on the backside of the park and didn’t realize it was a castor oil plant. There’s a lot of it here.

I passed through Clearwater Beach on the way home. It looks like they were having some type of fair, like they need another reason to bring even more people to this crazy overcrowded, nowhere to park beach.

Early May at Fort Desoto

On June 22, 2019June 24, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

High up in a tree, I watched this yellow warbler stuff himself with snacks.

There were still a few other birds in early May at Fort Desoto including the blackpoll warbler in the last picture.

Frigatebirds were flying high overhead.

At the east end of the park I could just barely make out Downtown St. Petersburg.

Birds at the fishing pier.

Recently I keep seeing parakeets popping out of trees.

The sand trails are covered with these grasshoppers.

image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup Our World Tuesday Graphic

Colors of the rainbow

On June 1, 2019May 19, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

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.

Residents birds and birds passing through.

On October 5, 2015October 6, 2015 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography16 Comments

Yellow-throated warblers are moving through, heading south for the winter.

I think this is a northern parula. They are common right now but this one looks a little scruffy

A male cardinal eating a berry.

The female cardinal is wondering why he isn’t sharing his berry.

The two above pictures are a yellow warbler.

The titmouse and cardinals are year round residents at Chesnut park. The other ones are just passing though. On their way south for the winter. Although, when I took these in mid-September it did not feel like winter would be coming any time soon. Fall migration is in full swing here in Florida but I feel like I’m missing it with work and vacation. Brett and I spent some time in Flagstaff, Arizona hiking in late September. We had beautiful cool weather so I felt like I had a tiny taste of fall. I’m working on the tons of pictures I took now so I’ll be bombarding you with those soon.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing

End of my spring migration at Fort DeSoto

On June 4, 2012October 5, 2019 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