Boat trip in Tampa Bay - Skywatch Friday

Hubby getting the boat ready. He didn't realize he had a visitor sitting by the lamp watching him. This is the first time I've seen an egret get so close. I guess he heard the boat motor and thought we were coming back with some fish.

Ibis and 2 laughing gulls fighting over a dead horseshoe crab.

Spotted sandpiper bobbing up and down the beach. He stayed pretty far away.

Osprey looking for lunch. That's the Bucs football stadium behind the airport parking deck in the background. We were on the other side of the bay.

Mallards swimming by.

Osprey catching a fish in the bay.

I noticed this bulldozer tearing down mangroves along the water.  I thought it was now illegal to do that. Not sure what they're doing.

Tampa from across the bay.

We took our boat out recently and heading for a small lagoon near the St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport. It's usually quiet there and we rarely see any other boats. There's a small beach there and we call it the "horseshoe crab graveyard". The beach is always littered with dead horseshoe crabs. I don't know why they end up here. Maybe the tide and the way the waves are flowing. Sometimes there are shorebirds hanging around. We anchored and swam over to the beach and walked around. Although, as soon as we start swimming onto shore the shorebirds take off. I hate scaring them away from their small piece of paradise. Last time we were there it was still a little cold and the water near the beach was full of stingrays so I stayed in the boat. I'm all for the stingray shuffle but when there's not even an inch to put your feet down I get creeped out. We stayed for a while and watched the small commuter planes land and take off at the small airport. I was a little disappointed we didn't seen any dolphins or manatees this trip.

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Kayaking in the backyard

Royal tern preening and a caspian tern watching.

There's always laughing gulls around. 

I thought all of the wintering kingfishers were gone but this guy was hanging out in the mangroves. He was far away and wouldn't let me close in my kayak.

Two spoonbills fly overhead. All I saw was a flash of pink high in the sky.

There were lots of willets and marbled godwits on people's docks.

The usual osprey.

I finally got around to a kayaking trip in the channels in our neighborhood in mid April.  I always go out not expecting to see much but I am usually pleasantly surprised. As I was paddling out into the open bay in upper Tampa Bay, several dolphins went whizzing by me. I didn't get the chance to get my camera out. They went by and were gone so fast. There's always a lot of shorebirds, gulls and terns hanging around the docks of the houses that sit out on the open bay. A few docks have fake owls to keep the birds off but I think the birds know they are fake. I've seen osprey sitting on top of the fake owl before.

All of the above were taken with my old Fuji point and shoot camera. I haven't tried to take my new Nikon D7000 on the kayak. It's so much to pack and stick in my small kayak. I'd rather travel light when I'm paddling.

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Variety of birds at Circle B Bar Reserve

A scene from Circle B Bar reserve. Taken at the dock over the lake on Alligator Alley. There were a few great egrets hanging out in the trees.

Blue jays must think they are tough. This one kept trying to pick on a hawk.

The hawk got annoyed and left.

Opsrey defending it's nest from another osprey. The nest is sitting on top of a dead palm tree.

There are a handful of glossy ibis hanging around the marsh. From far away the glossy almost looks black but when the sun hits them you can see the burgandy and green iridescent color.

People say the birding season at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland is winding down. Especially since the best trail is closed until late fall due to alligator nesting season. But there are still so many different things to see out there. I'm going to try and head back there a few more times before it gets too hot. I still want to see the baby sandhill crane growing up and I just heard there's a red shouldered hawk's nest with babies. I've never seen baby hawks before.

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Estero Lagoon Locals

Very windy conditions on the Florida Gulf Coast were again experienced this week as a storm front passed over the Florida Peninsula offering much needed rain though very little accumulated in the Fort Myers area.

The Reddish Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

The weather was otherwise ideal for an afternoon visit to Estero Lagoon early in the week.

I found haven from the wind by settling in the water exiting the lagoon into the gulf near a clump of mangroves on the beach.

The Osprey above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

From this position I was able to study a surprisingly docile Reddish Egret that was often wary of the beach patrons passing by.

I was able to observe a number of White Ibis, a Snowy Egret, and a Mottled Duck work the lagoon.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

A very rarely seen Herring Gull made a close flyby over the lagoon as it headed south along the beach.

An Osprey made a landing behind a dune in the lagoon and appeared back into view carrying a stick for nest building.

The Herring Gull above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

This was a treat to observe as I thought this activity had peaked a couple of months ago.

While it's been evident that snow birds (tourists) have been returning home these past couple of weeks, there still was a lot of foot traffic at the lagoon.

The Magnificent Frigatebird above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

A pair of visitors from Miami photographed the Reddish Egret with me for a brief time.

The Roseate Spoonbill failed to arrive on the scene as I commented was a possibility.

The Miamian above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

After walking a few hundred yards to the south, I settled down to study a pair of Snowy Egret and the Reddish Egret that had flown in to take advantage of the incoming tide.

A Ruddy Turnstone flew onto the scene for a brief moment as the sun was close to setting.

The Reddish Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

I chose to photograph the waders directly into the sun in the final hour of my stay at the lagoon for what I had hoped would offer some interesting images.

This proved to be a problem with the reflection of the sun in the water so bright that I needed to use manual focus as auto focus couldn't distinguish the birds from the surf.

The Michiganian above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

The beach goers near Estero Lagoon are often visiting from other parts of the country or the world.

It's always interesting to speak with them when the chance arises.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Estero Lagoon in April 2011.

Osprey at Honeymoon Island - Skywatch Friday

I remember the first time I saw an osprey. My dad died in the spring of 2001 and my mom decided she wanted to move to a retirement community rather than live alone. She was a very sociable person. She moved into this great apartment on the 4th floor and right across the driveway was an osprey nest! My sisters and I stood on the balcony asking ourselves "What is that bird?" I remembered that we had packed an old waterbird book that my dad had bought years ago at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. We dug that out and flipped through the pages. There it was, an osprey. Or fish hawk as it also know. It's a type of hawk that catches fish with it's talons. The ospreys had babies on the nest, although we could barely see them. We spent that week watching that nest with a pair of old binoculars. Later the next year I moved down here with hubby and at some point we noticed all of the osprey that would hang out on the bridges eating fish. It became a habit of mine to count the number of osprey on the bridge on the way home from work. Several summers ago I got up to 22 on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. This past summer I think I only hit 12. 

One of the best places to see them is at Honeymoon Island. There's a lot of nesting going on but I don't think there are any babies yet. There are tons of osprey on the trail flying around and eating. I saw all of the above while heading to the end of the trail to check on the eagle's nest. I'm going to try and check back in another month to see if I can catch some baby osprey.

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Turtles and a wood duck

Getting a ride.

Lonely male wood duck.

 

Wood duck in the water.

Osprey nest at the football field.

On a recent Sunday afternoon I stopped by Kapok Park to see if I could find the great horned owls that have nested there for the last 3 years. No luck again. It's getting late in the season. I wonder what happened to the couple. There wasn't too much at the park at all. Lots of turtles. I did manage to find a lonely male wood duck. I've never seen one there before. He was hanging out with some mallards and moorhens.

On the way home, right before dark, I stopped at the community sports park near my house. There are baseball and football fields there.  You can see the nest platform that was put in the lights in the first osprey picture. There are several of those platforms in the ball park. This way the osprey don't build nests in the lights which I guess could be bad for lights. I'll stop by in the next couple of weeks to see if there are any baby osprey.

A weekend with a kingfisher

These were taken a couple of weekends ago.  It's the last time I've seen the kingfisher in our neighborhood. I hope she hasn't gone home yet. I need to tell her it's still snowing up north so she might as well stay a little longer.  I finally got a picture of her with a fish. She caught it and then kept banging it on the wall to kill it before she swallowed it.  She took it down the channel so I didn't get to see her swallow it but she came back a couple of hours later and hung around for a while. I don't see how that fish could fit in her little body.

The osprey was trying to eat his fish on our neighbor's dock while the kingfisher was banging on hers.

Osprey at Honeymoon Island

Osprey were flying everywhere.

 

"I'm full. Want the leftovers?"

"Don't make fun of my tiny fish."

"When is Valentine's Day again?"

Osprey Trail at Honeymoon Island is full of.... wait for it.....opsrey.  Although, the best part of osprey trial is the end where the eagle's nest is. To get to the eagle's nest you have to walk by a ton of osprey. The trail is buzzing with pre-nesting osprey activity. Osprey were flying over my head non-stop. I only saw 2 nests that had osprey sitting on them. It's a little early but in the next couple of weeks there will be osprey couples all over the place. They get loud when you walk by so the trail is pretty noisy.  I'm going to try and get back there soon to see osprey babies.