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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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.

Shorebirds on the causeway

Young royal tern making a racket.

First year least tern that's been banded. I couldn't see the numbers on these bands.

Another least tern with only one band.

Marbled godwit.

Cute little plover.

The Courtney Campbell Causeway is starting to get an influx of different shorebirds. I stopped by there after work one day last week when it was about to rain so there wasn't too many people on the small beach on the Clearwater side. Lots of young birds there that aren't in full adult colors yet. The least tern's beak will turn yellow after it's first year. Migration season is starting so I'm going to try and hit this little beach and Gandy beach after work for the next couple of weeks to see if I can find some different birds. I heard common terns and gull-billed terns hanging around so I'm going to try and find them.

Skywatch Friday - Storm at the pier

I headed over to Redington Shores one day last week after work to see how the baby skimmers were growing. It started out sunny but then the storms moved in not long after I had gotten there. It's been raining every day lately. At this point there weren't too many people on the beach. The shorebirds and pelicans were having a nice quiet time.

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Oystercatcher couple giving me the eye.

Parent royal tern feeding it's baby.

Young royal tern.

These guys stayed close together. I'm guessing it's a royal tern family. One of the parents is in the back with the bright orange beak. The 3 up front look like first year terns. They make a nice family.

Action at the fishing pier

As usual, dolphins were everywhere at the fishing pier.


Snowy egrets fighting over bait fish territory.

Sandwich tern in flight.

Royal tern in flight. The above sandwich tern has a black beak with a yellow tip. The royal tern has an orange beak. When the royal tern is not flying, it looks like it has a toupee on his head.

A quick stop at the Fort Desoto fishing pier provided a lot of sun but not too many birds. I'm not sure why the fishing piers are surrounded by so much bait fish. It does bring in the terns and gulls. They were all flying around the pier and snatching the bait fish. The usual dolphins were also swimming around. It was sunny and hot so I did not stay too long. I headed down to the beach for a swim with the hubby.

Terns and dolphins

Lots of terns on Fort Desoto beach.

Ruddy Turnstone on the fishing pier hiding behind the rail.

The hubby and I spent Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto park. It was a sunny gorgeous day. I spent some time walking the fishing pier. There were dolphins everywhere. They seemed to be trying to steal fish away from the fishermen as they were catching fish on lines. Several times fishermen thought they had caught something only to have the dolphin show up and take the fish off their line. They were not happy. The dolphins were swimming right up to the pier.

The beach was full of terns. There were huge flocks of the them resting on the edge of the beach. Every once in a while someone would be walking down the beach and they would fly in a circle and come right back down to the beach. It was weird to see so many terns and so few gulls.