Skywatch Friday - Sunset at Fort Desoto

A quick trip to Fort Desoto after work recently was worth the 30 minute drive to "stop by" and see if I could catch the sunset. Even though it was hot, the sky was perfect. In another month it will dark when I leave work so I'm not looking forward to that. Hopefully I can stock up on some great sunset pictures before then, since October is one of the best months here for them.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.


 

Fattening up

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are fattening up for their southward migration. I had 4 yesterday and only have seen 2 this morning so far. I usually see Ruby-throats until early to mid October at my feeders.

This is one reason that I keep my hummingbird feeders up. It is not true that the hummingbirds will not migrate if you leave your feeders up until after Labor Day. In fact, I would say that it helps them on their southward migration, but this is only my opinion. As one can see from the photos below, the Ruby-throated is fattening up for the coming migration. Hummers also eat insects and spiders etc., so the feeders aren't their only source of food.

Another reason that I leave my hummingbird feeders up all fall (I leave mine up till Christmas here!), is that I hope for a western vagrant hummingbird species. Every fall, some Selasphorus (Like Rufous and Allen's) hummingbird species move east of the Mississippi River and show up at feeders in the Midwest and East. Other western species have shown up as well.

Here are some sites with more info:

HBRC Tri-state Hummingbird Study

Add your fall feeders to this map (Ohio only I think)!: Fall Vagrant Hummingbirds Project

Fattened up Ruby-throated Hummingbird in a peach tree

Belted Kingfisher

I found this beautiful belted kingfisher on one of the boardwalks at John Chesnut Park in Pinellas County.  The portrait was taken from very far away and was extremely cropped. I've found that they are very skittish and will not stick around while you try and get decent pictures. Later that morning while I was walking to the other end of the boardwalk, I heard it chattering as it flew by and then stopped right in front of me and started to dive for a fish. I always feel like I don't have such luck. I missed him hitting the water since it was hidden by mangroves where I was standing but a few seconds later I saw him take off so I'm assuming he got his meal.

Sundown on Gandy beach

Sandwich tern taking a bath.

How many different types of shorebirds are on this beach?

Skimmer doing what he does - skimming for food.

Industrial strength great blue heron.

Cormorant condos.

I stopped by Gandy beach on the way home one day last week. I left work late so I barely had any time before it got dark. There were still a handful of people there. The reason the skimmers in the above picture were flying over my head was because there were 2 guys there on 3 wheeler dirt bikes. They thought it was fun to drive up to the shoreline and scare the birds away. As I was headed for the end of the beach where most of the birds were, they flew past me and drove through the shorebirds trying to go to sleep. They knew I was not happy. How would they like it if I came to their house and drove a dirt bike through at 6am and woke them up?

Otherwise, it was a nice night out but clouds moved in just as the sun was going down so no sunset shots on this trip.

Sawgrass Lake Park

Blue heron looking for some food.


Friends hanging out together.

The spoonbill had a lot of company.

I only saw one alligator on this trip.

Sawgrass Lake Park in St. Petersburg is known for alligators. I usually see several. I stopped by one night last week after work and found the main boardwalk closed. Not sure why or for how long. I ended up taking the boardwalk that goes away from the lake and down a trail. I did find a spoonbill with a few ibis friends and a great egret at the end of that trail. The weird thing about this park is that it's sitting right next to a major interstate (275) running through St. Pete. When you get inside you don't realize it unless you walk away from the lake and you start to hear the traffic. As I was about to leave the below flew overhead.

Zoo animals

Above are some pictures of a recent trip to the Lowry Park Zoo. I used to say I would never go there in the summer but yet I still keep going even when it's 95 degrees outside. It's a great place to walk around and get some exercise. They have a new pair of koala bears. I stopped there first and they were sleeping, then on my way out of the park I stopped by again and they were awake. The picture of the ducks (hooded mergansers, female on the left and male on the right) was taken through the manatee window which was all scratched up but thought it had a certain fogginess about it. I think Tamani, the elephant on the right, is 5 years old now but he still isn't as big as the older elephants. And the baby rhino was looking so cute with that little piece of hay hanging out of his mouth.

Lakes Regional Park: Late Summer 2010

Lakes Regional Park is a venue with great potential for an exciting wildlife experience.

The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

I've made relatively few visits to this park due to its popularity with pedestrians and bicycle riders in great numbers that typically arrive an hour or so after sunrise.

Two visits were made to Lakes Park this week with enjoyable experiences on both occasions.

The Common Moorhen juvenile above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

158 acres of freshwater at depths in excess of 20 feet (the benefit of quarry mining in the 1960's) and 279 acres that constitute the park overall allows areas for exploration where you could easily spend hours that pass too quickly.

To wrap up the 2010 summer season I chose to study what might be happening at Lakes Park after making an effort to observe Scarlet Ibis that I was fortunate to see at this place during the breeding season.

The Osprey above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

In no way was the bird action anywhere near as prolific as during the months of April through July when countless wading birds can be seen as they congregate in the park's rookery which I regrettably found off limits while kayaking Lakes Park's waters in early summer.

The first visit to Lakes Park this week led to my observation of an Osprey that was initially perched on a light post upon my arrival to the park.

The Anhinga above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

The bird ultimately led to some of my favorite images I've taken of the species.

Osprey can be observed in greatest numbers at virtually any time of year at Lovers Key State Park to the south.

The Anhinga above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

One of my most memorable wildlife observations to date occurred this week at Lakes Park while I had the camera honed on a Tricolored Heron.

The heron had just begun to preen itself when a background out of focus view of an Anhinga offered an impaled fish brought ashore for an extremely surreal experience.

The Blue Jay above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

The species of bird in greatest numbers with no more than a dozen seen in a day included Anhinga, Little Blue Heron juveniles, Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, and Boat-tailed Grackle.

Other sightings I found enjoyable included juvenile Common Moorhen, Green Heron, Blue Jay, Northern Mockingbird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Loggerhead Shrike, White Ibis, Double-crested Cormorant, Laughing Gull, and Eurasian-collared Dove.

The Loggerhead Shrike above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in September 2010.

The hopes of seeing large numbers of migrating warblers was certainly premature.

Skywatch Friday - Kayaking North Tampa Bay

I looked out the window last weekend and saw beautiful blue skies. Hubby wanted to watch sports on tv so I opted for a paddle around the channels in our neighborhood. I've never seen spoonbills in the mangroves near our channel so I was surprised to find the above sitting in the bushes when I paddled by.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

Great egret also sitting in the mangrove bushes.

I paddled along the mangroves across from the Courtney Campbell Causeway and the water got very shallow. Low tide moved in on me fast. The 4 spoonbills were standing in the water feeding and stopped to pose for me when I paddled by.

There was a variety of different birds hanging out at this shallow spot.



I'm thinking the one in the middle is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a lesser or greater. I don't see these very often. The ones on the ends are both willets. You can see how shallow the water was.


At one point I got out of my kayak and was dragging it behind me because the water was so shallow in some places. I was a little nervous because there were stingrays everywhere. I was careful and did the stingray shuffle. Even though you could see the bottom, those guys could be half hidden under the sand.

There were tons of the above crown conchs everywhere.

Coming back into the main channel, the above spoonbills were walking around. It was a very productive spoony day!

A little surprise...

While up-righting my potted plants on the patio from the storms this afternoon, this little Eastern Garter Snake came out from underneath one of the plants and jumped at my hand. It was not a happy camper!

I think it may be close to or had just shed its skin.



It wasn't much bigger than the night crawlers that I use for fishing!

Wild things at the zoo

I'm probably one of the only people that goes to the zoo and looks for non-zoo animals. There's always a lot of wildlife hanging around zoos. It's a good place to steal a handout. I almost always find the above great blue heron hanging out at the pond at the cheetah exhibit. He's eating the little fish that live in that pond. Usually, I find tons of wild water birds but a recent visit only provided a few. The above yellow flowers where covered in little critters and the zoo was still full of grasshoppers eating their way through the plants.

Ruddy turnstone is missing feet.

It was dark on the fishing pier at Fort Desoto. The sun had long gone and I was walking back to my car. Even in the dark I noticed this little bird was walking funny. I turned on my flash to shed some light indirectly and found the above ruddy turnstone was missing it's feet. It was still getting around pretty good. I guess the bird has adapted pretty well. I always wonder about these birds. What happened to cause this or was it born without feet? He flew off with no problem.

North Beach Sanctuary

The famous long billed curlew walking around.

Black bellied plover still has some of his breeding black on him.




White morph Reddish egret walking away.

The bird sanctuary from behind the ropes.

There's tons of room for these birds but they seem to like to stand very close together. I guess it's the old "safety in numbers" theory.

A large part of the north beach at Fort Desoto in front of the big lagoon is roped off. It's been nicknamed the North Beach Sanctuary. The Audubon put a large wooden deck in the middle of the lagoon hoping least terns would nest on it. I don't think they had any luck this year. Maybe by next year the terns will be used to it and nest on it. The roped off area is pretty big so it's hard to get any specific bird pictures unless they wander outside the area. The above long billed curlew and black bellied plover were walking around outside the roped off area but still far away from the regular tourist. I'm glad the birds have nice beach front property away from the kids and dogs running after them. A lot of these birds are migrating and only stopping over for a couple of days so they need their rest.