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. 

Celery Field variety of birds - Skywatch Friday

I parked along side of the road at the celery fields in Sarasota and the above was circling overhead.  Having a "turkey" vulture circle around you is almost like celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't think turkey vultures get the credit they deserve for being "cool" birds. They look great when they are flying high up in the sky. They look creepy when there's a group of them hanging out on the side of the road.  I did have a good visit to the celery fields the week of Thanksgiving and I'm going to try and get back before Christmas.

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

This red shouldered hawk couple sat on the light fixture the entire time I was there.

Any id on this would be great. At first I thought it was a palm warbler which are common here but there's no hint of yellow.  Could it be a hermit thrush? That's the closest I could find on Whatbird.com.

Flock of anhingas flying by.

Grackle can't read.

The above is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a greater or lesser. They look alike.

I finally see a kildeer and didn't even know it. The sun was going down and I wanted to get a picture of the shorebirds sleeping. I didn't see the kildeer in the upper left corner until later when I uploaded the pictures. The picture is extremely cropped. I can't believe that little bird snuck into my picture and didn't let me know he was there. There was a small flock of shorebirds together and he must have been hiding in them.

Kapok Park on a cold day

Grackle eating a slice of bread that someone had dropped in the lake for the turtles. These birds almost look black but when you see them in the sunlight you can see their different shades of blue and gray.

Glossy ibis that has been hanging around the park for a while now. This was the first time I've seen it close to the boardwalk.

 

I was walking on the boardwalk when the above anhinga popped out of the water. She swam back and forth in front of me and seemed to be showing me her prize. She swam under the boardwalk to swallow it so I was not able to get a shot of that. I'm assuming she did. She swam back out with fish parts stuck on her beak.

Wet pied grebe had just popped out of the water.

 

I think the duck on the left was saying "Stop splashing me while she's trying to take a picture you ole coot."

By cold I mean a high of 72 degrees. A couple of weeks ago we had a cold blast in central Florida and I slept in that morning and headed out to the park later that afternoon. Someone had just dropped an entire loaf of bread in the lake and grackles were diving down for them. It turned out to be a nice day and I didn't even need my jacket.

Birds at Kapok Park

Red winged blackbird taking off.


Limpkin

Moorhen seeing his reflection in the sunset.

Common grackle resting.

Blackbird

There were lots of different birds at Kapok Park this past week. Since the boardwalk was closed due to a fire I was not able to walk around most of the lake to see what water birds were there. It was right before the sun went down when I got there. Above are a few of the smaller birds I was able to find before it got dark along with a limpkin, who I heard a mile away from his loud call.

Pinellas birds on a Saturday morning

Ibis digging for food in Tampa Bay.


Boattail grackle eating a berry at the Safety Harbor fishing pier.

Great Blue Heron trying to sleep at Kapok Park.

Wild parrot at Kapok Park. These guys are always high up in trees.

Saturday morning brought perfect weather so I decided to hit some parks close to home. First I stopped at Kapok Park. It was a quiet morning. Not too many birds there. I saw a flock of wild parrots flying around high up in the trees. It's so hard to get decent pictures of them because they stay so high up. I looked for the owls but could not find them. Maybe they haven't come back yet. I'll keep looking. Next I stopped by the Safety Harbor fishing pier. Even though the tide was low there were not a lot of birds around. Lots of manatees still there. I was leaning on the railing of the pier taking pictures of the manatees when this grackle landed on the rail right next to me. He had a berry in his mouth and seemed to be showing off his prize. I got a few good pictures of him before he flew off. On the way home I stopped by Philippe Park and managed to get a very far away picture (see below) of the eagle pair that has come back for the winter. Last winter and spring they spent a lot of time on the first utility tower in the water. The picture was taken with my 500mm lens and extremely cropped.