Osprey fights for his fish - My World Tuesday

I thought a recent trip to the Roosevelt Wetlands by work was going to be disappointing. I stopped by after work and there wasn't much there. As the sun was going down and I had decided to leave, I heard an osprey making a lot of noise. He was flying across the lake with a small fish in his talons. I then realized that 2 blackbirds were chasing him. It amazes me that these smaller birds are brave enough to go after the osprey to get that little fish. They chased him for about a minute and then gave up. The osprey finally landed on a nearby dead tree and ate his little fish quickly. I noticed later that I managed to get a faint full moon in the top of the 3rd picture.

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Roosevelt Wetlands

Beautiful glossy ibis. We don't see these very often in Pinellas county. This one looks like it's in full breeding colors.

Blue winged teal duck. We don't see these very often as well. I love the spots on his wing and the bold white stripe on his face.


Red winged blackbird making a lot of noise.

A belted kingfisher from very far away. These birds are very skittish. This picture was extremely cropped. This was the first time I had seen a kingfisher at this park.

The usual alligator.

The usual alligator snack food. Rabbits are showing up everywhere.

I made a quick stop at Roosevelt Wetlands after work one day last week. I needed to get out and walk around after sitting at my desk all day. This place is really a preserve instead of a park. There are no restrooms, playgrounds or real parking. There are houses sitting around half of the lake. You can usually find some different birds there. There were a lot of ducks hanging around the lake. I got my first decent picture of a blue winged teal above. There were several of them there and they stayed close together out in the middle of the lake. I plan to make a lot of stops at the wetlands now that it's still light after work and it's close by.

Roosevelt Wetlands

Tricolored heron braving the wind.

Immature blue heron. They are completely white their first 6-12 months and then start to turn blue.


My first northern mockingbird picture. This is the state bird. Florida Audubon has petitioned the state to change the state bird to the Florida scrub jay.

I took this picture into the sun and this is how it turned out without any editing. Looks like an Alfred Hitchcock picture.

My first female red-winged blackbird picture. I had to look this one up. Only the males have red on their wings.

Saturday I stopped by the Roosevelt Wetlands in Pinellas Park. It's a small lake that backs up to the back of the waste plant. There are always tons of birds there busy eating and swimming around. The cold and rain of Friday night must have driven them into hiding because early Saturday morning there weren't too many birds there. I did manage to find the few above. There were also 2 opsrey there. One was flying around but never tried to get any fish. The other was sitting on the empty nest post in the middle of the lake. Maybe this spring there will be babies.

Roosevelt Wetlands

Osprey flying high in the blue sky.

It's a good thing these birds aren't in a boat.

Limpkin in the grass at the Roosevelt Wetlands.

There's a great little lake in Pinellas Park called Roosevelt Wetlands. It's small and probably not very deep. There are houses around half the lake. It's amazing how much wildlife is there. Saturday morning I went there looking for the black bellied whistling ducks that have been living there for a while. I had read about it on Pinellasbirds.com. Of course I could not find the ducks. I did see an array of other birds; limpkins, great egrets, great blue herons, osprey, etc. I'll go back in a couple of weeks to look for the ducks.

On the way home I drove by the retention ponds that run along the Pinellas county waste plant. Lots of birds there as well.

Egret party - snowy and great.


Hawk sitting on a utility pole.

Roseate spoonbill wading through the trash.