Skywatch Friday - Bathing on the beach

I arrived as Redington Shores beach to find gray clouds lingering around one night after work last week. I had about 30 minutes before it started to rain. At least the weather cooled off.



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

There was a puddle of water close to the shore line from the high tide earlier. The gulls and terns seemed to have fun taking a bath in the puddle. They were so busy dunking under the water and preening themselves that they didn't seem to mind me sitting down in front of them and taking pictures. After they finished, they flew around to get the excess water off. At that point it started to rain so they were going to get soaked anyway. It was time for me to go home.

Skimmers nesting on the beach.

Nice trash!

The skimmers are getting down to the nesting business. There are hundreds of them nesting near St. Petersburg beach. In the next couple of weeks, we should have teeny, tiny baby skimmers running around. Just in time for the 4th of July fireworks and tourists to scare them to death. The skimmer nesting site is currently roped off but the tiny babies tend to wander outside of the ropes. If you are on any of the beaches in the Tampa bay area, please watch out for babies. And please take your trash with you! Hopefully, I'll be back with baby skimmer pictures in the next couple of weeks.