Fort Desoto Fishing Pier - Skywatch Friday

I saw this pelican from far away. I saw a little green on it and thought it was a band. When I got home and cropped it up I realized it was a fish hook with a green fish. Hopefully, it will dislodge.

Snowy egret with a bite of fish. He's standing on one of the cleaning stations on the pier.

Osprey nest on the old tower next to the snack bar. I think the one on the left is a juvenile.

The usual dolphin swimming around the pier.

Lots of kites in the sky this past weekend.

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Birds at Fort Desoto

More pelican fly by pictures above and below.

Great egret coming for a landing.

This cormorant was floating around the fishing pier. I took the picture from far away thinking it wouldn't turn into much. When I cropped it up I realized he had a hook in his mouth. I wish I could have seen that when I was there. I would have reported it to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. It may purge out eventually. Everyone thinks this is such a common bird but he does have beautiful colors on his face.

Just another day at the beach. I walked down to the fishing pier but it was a pretty quiet day except for a few pelicans and great egrets. It's fun to walk the pier and see the birds and dolphins but I hate seeing birds hooked. How can we reach them to help them when they are floating far away? If we get close in a boat will they just fly off? Sadly, I think they would have to be in pretty bad shape to let someone catch them. There are signs at the pier explaining to the fishermen to not cut the line. It shows them with pictures how to catch the birds with a net if they have one and pull the hook off. I've never seen anyone do that. Most of them just don't care. 

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Pretty pelicans at Fort Desoto - Skywatch Friday

Some people think the scrub jay should be the state bird for Florida instead of the mockingbird. I think it should be the brown pelican. What a pretty face this one has. The above pelican was watching me take it's picture at the fishing pier at Fort Desoto.  He has just enough pink around the eyes and beige on the top of his head. He also has a green tint on his pouch that I've never really noticed on pelicans before. He sat there for a while then flew into the water. After a few minutes he was joined by a friend. There weren't a lot of pelicans at the pier that day. Maybe the fish weren't biting.

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Fort Desoto birds (and a fish too).

Ruddy turnstone missing a foot.

Royal terns making a fuss (with a few laughing gulls in the background).

Another ruddy turnstone with some wire on his foot. He took off right when I took this.

Willet strolling the beach.

Yum, sheepshead fish. This seems to be a common fish caught on the Fort Desoto fishing pier.

Another trip to Fort Desoto Park beach. There will be tons more of these this summer. It was a cool sunny day and hubby's family was in town for a visit so we headed to our favorite spot. A long walk down the beach to the fishing pier was full of gulls and shorebirds. Mostly the usual laughing gulls and willets. I was bragging about how every time I go to the fishing pier I see dolphins. Of course, this time we walked the pier for an hour and saw zero dolphins. They'll never believe me now. There were very few pelicans there but the fisherman were catching a lot of fish. Mostly sheepshead (we asked a fisherman what they were all catching). Maybe dolphins and pelicans don't like that kind of fish. I don't think I would either, but I'm picky about fish.

More birds at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

Great blue heron nest high up in the shade trees at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.  This one sits right over the raptor's enclosure.

You can guess what happens next. Soon there should be some baby great blues.

Permanent resident scratching.

Juvenile night heron.

The three stooges. Baby pelicans finally walking around.

Still some baby pelicans being born. This one was sitting on two brand new babies (although they look like plucked chickens at first).

One of my favorite permanent residents with the torn beak pouch. I always see him when I visit.

Still some nest building going on so there will be more babies to come.

Spring is here at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. Between the wild birds coming to nest and the permanently injured birds already nesting there are lots of babies to see. A couple of weekends ago I stopped by there with my sister. She hadn't been there when all of the babies where there so it was a treat. There were a few pelican couples arguing over nesting spots so I think they will have more babies there in the next couple of  months. At the end of spring, the sanctuary will open the netting so all of the baby pelicans can fly away, although I think a handful will still hang around for free handouts. 

Baby pelicans

The proud parents.

Mom, don't sit on me.

Shhh! Sleeping twins.

Busy parents.

Up close. This pelican has pretty colors on it's face.

He was feeding the injured pelicans and stopped to give this one a head scratch. The pelican was in heaven and didn't want him to stop.

I had heard there were baby pelicans at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. The big pen with all of the permanently injured pelicans has nests set up all around it. When I stopped by on a recent rainy, foggy morning there were several nests that had babies on them.  In a couple of months, the sanctuary will open the nets on the top of the pen for the babies to fly out. At that point they can come and go as they please. I think most take off and are gone for good. A few stick around for the free handouts. Baby pelicans are cute with all of that white fuzz. They look like little piles of marshmallows. I want to try and get back when they get a little bigger to see them walking around.

Unusual backyard visitors - Skywatch Friday

Ring billed gull on our dock. We usually only get laughing gulls in our neighborhood.

Turkey vulture sitting on our dock.  This is the 2nd time I've seen one on our dock in 7 years.

The tide was so low the muck was showing on the sides of the channel. The turkey vulture found something to dig out.

Pelican on our neighbor's dock. We have never gotten pelicans in our channel. In the last week I've seen one hanging around.

Posing for me.

Eastern phoebe sitting on my fence. I've never seen one of these in our backyard.

These ibis aren't unusual. Actually, there's always a flock somewhere in the neighborhood. One night they were sitting on the lamp post down the street. I took this through the kitchen window.

Snowy egret sitting on my dock. I see these every once in a while in the channel.

Last weekend was a perfect weekend. I was in and out of the house all weekend but when I was in I was always looking out the windows for any visitors. We had several different ones this time. We don't usually get pelicans and eastern phoebes. It was a nice mix of birds. It was very windy and that might have been what brought in the new birds to our channel. I also saw 2 pair of hooded mergansers but they stayed down at the other end of the channel and I didn't even try to take a picture that far away.  Sunday before sunset I went out and snapped the above picture. It was nice outside but it got cold fast when the sun went down.

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Birds at Homosassa Springs

A volunteer was feeding the pelicans.

The above pelican had that "Don't come near my nest." look on it's face.

There are 3 permanently injured eagles that live at the park.

Lot's of wild storks come in to get a free handout.

We found a lot of wood ducks swimming around the river near the manatees.

Sandhill crane taking a nap. A volunteer told me that years ago they had a sandhill crane that had been hurt brought to the park for rehabilitation. The crane ended up staying and attracking a wild mate. They had babies and there is now 3 generations of sandhills that live at the park. They could leave anytime they want but they still hang around all year.

How often do you see a red shouldered hawk (left) and red tailed hawk (right) sitting together on a branch? The red tailed was missing a wing.

Besides manatees, the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has lots of birds. Both wild and rehabilitating permanent residents. You can get really close up to some of them. There's a lagoon in the middle that has flamingos, both white and brown pelicans, storks, swans and sandhill cranes that all hang out together. The brown pelicans were working on their nests while we were there so soon there will be babies to view up close. On a visit last spring I saw a handful of baby swans. There are a lot of volunteers at the park that can answer any questions and told me all kinds of good stories about the birds there. You can also find a lot of wild birds in the park. We saw pileated woodpeckers and warblers as well. I think I'm going to head back in early spring to see any babies that are at the park.

Sights from Safety Harbor - My World Tuesday

A lost boat near the Safety Harbor fishing pier. It's anchor must have come lose and gotten grounded in low tide.

Pelican flying over the fishing pier.

Two great egret flying by.

This was taken at the end of the trail in Philippe Park on the Safety Harbor side. The eagle was sitting on the closest utility pole in the water. Last winter I saw the pair up there all winter and then some time in spring they were gone. This is the first time I've seen one there since last spring. Hopefully, the mate is close by. This was extremely cropped with my 500mm lens.

I had my camera in the car a couple of weekends ago and decided to stop by the Safety Harbor fishing pier on the way home from running errands. It was windy and there were hardly any fishermen there. There weren't any birds hanging around the pier but a few flew by and kept going somewhere. There were several manatees in the water but you could only see their snouts so I didn't take any pictures. I'm assuming they'll soon head over to the TECO plant to spend the winter in the warm run-off water. I also stopped at the tiny bridge at the end of Philippe Park to see if any eagles were around. Yea, there was one on top of the utility pole. I'll keep my eye out for the other one this winter.

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