Baby hawks and the usual birds at Circle B.

Limpkin eating a snail on Alligator Alley trail.

This looks like an immature red shouldered hawk.

Immature little blue heron turning blue.

Two of the smaller baby red shouldered hawks.

The older sibling.

My first hawk babies were seen at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. A red shouldered hawk couple had built a nest behind the barred owl's nest. The barred owl babies had flown the coupe when I got there but a nice surprise was behind the nest. I could hear the baby hawks screaming. The birds were very far away across a river so the above pictures are highly cropped. Things are starting to slow down at the reserve. It's getting hot there and all of the migrate birds are almost gone or will be gone soon. All of the babies are growing up fast. I'm going to try and head out there one more time before the summer heat sets in. Then it's more trips to the coast where at least you get a sea breeze.

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Also, check out more birds at

Kapok Park after work.

Limpkin with a snack.

Follow the leader. Baby mallards following mom.

Red bellied woodpecker. You can barely see the red on it's belly.

It's checking to make sure it's a red bellied woodpecker as well.

Baby blue heron. This was taken in bad light but I thought it was interesting to see how the blue is starting to come out.

Tri-colored heron standing guard.

I stopped by Kapok Park in Clearwater on the way home from work last week. There wasn't anything unusual there. It was a nice walk anyway. It's a challenge to photograph there after work because the sun is going to down on the opposite side of all the best stuff. There's a lot of shade as well. The best time for the light is in the morning but I can't make it there before work so I go after work. I was really disappointed there were no great horned owls there. For the last 2 spring seasons a couple have raised a baby there. No owls this year. I'm going to try and get to the park quite a bit this summer. It beats sitting in traffic.

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Lots of birds at Kapok Park

Juvenile blue heron walking around in the dead reeds.

Anhinga's got lunch.

Pied grebe is shaking off the water.

Warbler posing on a branch.

Grackles and cowbirds (below) are always on the boardwalk.

There was a pretty decent variety of birds at Kapok Park in Clearwater for a Sunday afternoon. I only had a few hours and didn't want to go to far away so I stopped off at the park to walk around. There wasn't anything unusual at the park. The highlight of the visit was the above anhinga getting a fish. 

War Memorial Park - a few bites - My World Tuesday

Juvenile blue heron eating a dragonfly.

Great blue heron with a fish.

There are so many parks in Pinellas county. I was on my way to look for the eagles and decided to drive through the War Memorial Park that sits on the water. I had been by there many times but never inside the park. It sits on an inlet in south St. Petersburg.  At first I thought there wouldn't be too much there but I did find a few birds eating. As I wandered out to the end of the park, I noticed the above couple sitting under the palm trees watching the gulls fly by. They seemed so peaceful it made me want to stop, slow down and take in the sights.  That lasted about a minute and then I was on to find more birds.

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The usual backyard visitors - My World Tuesday

The above juvenile red shouldered hawk has been hanging around our backyard for a couple of weeks now. He found a piece of fish that the osprey left on the dock.

Sitting in our neighbor's back yard.

The resident female kingfisher was sitting on a pole sticking out of the water near our seawall.

The resident blue heron that I don't see that often showed up for a couple of hours.

She started coughing up a piece of fish she had eaten earlier. Yuk!

After the rain stopped, the hawk was drying his wings on our neighbor's sailboat mast.

I didn't see her catch the fish but she showed up a couple of docks down with a fish in her mouth.

I woke up a couple of weekends ago to a rainy day. It rained on and off all day so I stayed in and did chores. We got a lot of the usual visitors during the day to our backyard. I kept peeking out the back sliding glass doors every half hour and was able to take the above pictures over the course of the day.

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Backyard visitors over Thanksgiving weekend.

I came home from running errands and the above juvenile red shoulder hawk was sitting on my roof. I see lots of adults in our neighborhood but this is the first time I've seen a juvenile here. He watched me drive into the garage. I ran inside and got my camera and was excited to see him still sitting there. I took a few pictures and then he took off. I hope he stays for a while.

Later that afternoon I saw him sitting on my neighbor's fence looking around.

A little while later he was sitting in my neighbor's yard. I grabbed my camera and snuck out the back door to take a few pictures.

I realized he was eating a bug.

Last winter we had a hooded merganser couple hanging around our channel for a couple of weeks.  Last weekend I saw a male. He's migrating through from somewhere up north. I ran out on the dock and took this picture. He stayed pretty far away. You can tell he's not used to people. Anytime I walk out on the dock the mallards always come swimming up quacking for food. I hope there's a female with him. I didn't see one last weekend but she could show up.

Blue heron looking for food under our neighbor's dock. The tide was really low last weekend.

Bird action at Circle B Bar Reserve

Great blue heron standing funny in the reeds. I have never seen one stand like that. I guess it was drying it's wings.

Immature blue heron fly-by.

 

This anhinga had caught a tiny fish. He was popping them down like popcorn shrimp.

The opsrey had a big fish. There are a lot of osprey at the park.

The limpkin was trying to hide his apple snail snack. Sounds like something Kellogg's would make.

Above is what the limpkins eat. I saw several limpkins at the park. More than usual. It must be a banner snail year. Someone must have lined the empty apple snails up on the side of the bank.

More pictures from my first fall trip to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Mostly just the usual birds there. But they all seemed pretty busy getting food. I'm going to try and get back there before Thanksgiving. Hopefully, the white pelicans will have migrated in by then.

PS.  Happy Halloween.

Busy Sunday morning in my backyard.

My story starts last Sunday with waking up to a chattering noise outside my window. I nudge my half-asleep husband "Do you hear that? I think our kingfisher is back." I hadn't seen him since early last spring. He hangs out in our channel every winter. I got up and looked out the window and there he was, sitting on our dock.



I ran and got my camera and open the blinds. He flew over to our neighbor's dock. I didn't notice the hawk sitting behind him until a few minutes later. After I took the above picture he took off down the channel. I thought I had scared him in the window but then noticed the below flying down the channel towards our house.

Our resident osprey was back with breakfast and landed on our neighbor's sailboat mast.

I went out the side door to try and get some outside pictures and the above red bellied woodpecker was sitting in our tree on the side of our house. He didn't stay long when he saw me.

I walked around to the backyard and noticed the immature blue heron that's been hanging around lately. He was on our neighbor's dock and looking at something strange.

That's when I noticed the red shouldered hawk had moved to the dock as well. He and the little blue heron were sitting on the same dock.

The hawk saw something in the grass and flew down to get it. I think it was a small lizard. He's got something hanging out of his mouth.

When the hawk flew back on the dock it scared the heron and off he went across the channel.

While heading back into the house the above blue jay was in our orange tree.

When I got back inside the hawk flew across our yard and landed on our neighbor's lanai. He watched a squirrel for a few minutes, then took off. I took the above from the dining room window.

All of the above happened before I had even had my Cheerios. Then all of a sudden everyone was gone. So we packed up and headed to Fort Desoto for the day. More on that later.

Sunset on the causeway - Skywatch Friday

It hasn't rained in weeks.  Which makes for a beautiful sunset every night but the grass and trees are started to get crispy. I took the above driving home from work recently. In another 2 weeks the time changes and I'll be driving home in the dark so I'm trying to stop and get pictures at least once a week.

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This blue heron was digging up some seaweed. There must have been something good in it.

There was a handful of shorebirds on the causeway.

Something in the water startled this great blue heron. Might have been a stingray.

There's always lots of skimmers flying around the causeway before dark.