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.
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.
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.
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 