My first spoony babies!

"Listen Mom, I have to tell you something."

"I can't get comfortable."

"Who's your favorite, Mom?"

"Look at my pink wings!"

"Three's a crowd."

"Don't poop on us Mom."

I stopped by Lowry Park zoo for a quick visit to check on the spoonbill nest. What a nice surprise to find 3 babies on the nest. They were so cute! I spent about an hour taking pictures. If I had my camera pointed at the nest, people would stop and notice the nest above the alligator pond. If I wasn't taking pictures, most walked by without even noticing the nest. People where noticing the big alligators laying below. They were mesmerized by how big the alligators were. The babies were my first spoonbill babies. They were light pink and fuzzy. I hope they don't outgrow that nest too fast. I'm going to try and stop by each weekend to keep track of their progress.

Check out more birds at

More wild birds at the zoo

Roseate spoonbill scratching.

Spoonbill sitting on the nest.

She's crying "It's your turn to sit on these hard sticks."

Carolina wren. I don't see these too often here.

Great egret flying by.

Just a few more pictures from my last recent trip to Lowry Park zoo.  I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on seeing spoonbill babies. I'm going to stop by there every weekend to check on them. It's only 10-12 minutes away and I have a membership so I may just stop in and run back to the rookery to see if any babies are present. Although, I sometimes get distracted by other cute animals.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site! My World

Things I found at the zoo

Beautiful hibiscus at the zoo. My dad used to grow award winning hibiscus in his backyard here in Florida. Sadly, when we sold my parents house I didn't take any of the bushes with me. I was living in a condo in Atlanta at the time.

The african penguins are so cute. I always want to jump in the pool with them.

Cool caterpillar.

A roseate spoonbill couple are nesting over the alligator exhibit. I have to keep checking back to see if they have babies. I've never seen spoonbill babies before.

Waste Plant birds

Black neck stilt watching me.

A pair!

Young roseate spoonbill hanging out in the mangroves.

Cattle egret panting with a great egret behind him ignoring me.

Yes, across the street from where I work is a great big waste plant. Birds hang out where there's lots of trash. There are ditches that run along the side of the waste plant that occasionally attract interesting things. There's always alligators, turtles, moorhens, osprey and lots of different water birds. Recently, while I was out getting lunch, I noticed some black neck stilts around the ditches. The next day I brought my camera and went looking for them after work. I pulled off the side of the road and was able to get a few pictures of a couple that were staying close together. The stilts are very skittish and didn't stay close very long.  While I was there I noticed a few spoonbills and egrets hanging out in a small mangrove island in the middle of the pond. It looks like they were hunkering down to sleep there for the night. Most days I drive by there and don't see anything at all so it's a hit or miss kind of place. At least it's close by.

For more birds check out

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.

Check out more birds at

Spoonbill party at Celery Fields. - My World Tuesday

I found this group of roseate spoonbills hanging around the Celery Fields pond on my 2nd trip there. My first trip several weeks ago was not successful. I got there early Saturday morning and found very little there. I decided to go back late in the afternoon and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I made that trip. The Celery Fields in Sarasota was just that, a celery farm from the early 1920's until some time in the 1990's. The Sarasota Audubon is now working with Sarasota county on restoring 80+ acres to natural wetlands. The nice thing about this area is that you can cheat on the exercise thing. No hiking 2 miles to get to the lake. There are roads all around the ponds and you can drive from pond to pond and just get out and take pictures.

Spoonbills aren't rare in central Florida but they aren't as common as other birds such as ibis or great egrets. I was recently thinking I hadn't seen many around lately. When you find a group together they are fun to watch. It was late in the day so the above group was winding down and preening. Several kept trying to sleep. A few were still trying to get that last bite before dark. It looks like there's a juvenile in the 2nd picture from the bottom. The one on the right was very pale pink and a little smaller than the others.  I have more stories from my trip coming up later.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site! http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Sawgrass Lake Park

Blue heron looking for some food.


Friends hanging out together.

The spoonbill had a lot of company.

I only saw one alligator on this trip.

Sawgrass Lake Park in St. Petersburg is known for alligators. I usually see several. I stopped by one night last week after work and found the main boardwalk closed. Not sure why or for how long. I ended up taking the boardwalk that goes away from the lake and down a trail. I did find a spoonbill with a few ibis friends and a great egret at the end of that trail. The weird thing about this park is that it's sitting right next to a major interstate (275) running through St. Pete. When you get inside you don't realize it unless you walk away from the lake and you start to hear the traffic. As I was about to leave the below flew overhead.

Skywatch Friday - Kayaking North Tampa Bay

I looked out the window last weekend and saw beautiful blue skies. Hubby wanted to watch sports on tv so I opted for a paddle around the channels in our neighborhood. I've never seen spoonbills in the mangroves near our channel so I was surprised to find the above sitting in the bushes when I paddled by.

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

Great egret also sitting in the mangrove bushes.

I paddled along the mangroves across from the Courtney Campbell Causeway and the water got very shallow. Low tide moved in on me fast. The 4 spoonbills were standing in the water feeding and stopped to pose for me when I paddled by.

There was a variety of different birds hanging out at this shallow spot.



I'm thinking the one in the middle is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a lesser or greater. I don't see these very often. The ones on the ends are both willets. You can see how shallow the water was.


At one point I got out of my kayak and was dragging it behind me because the water was so shallow in some places. I was a little nervous because there were stingrays everywhere. I was careful and did the stingray shuffle. Even though you could see the bottom, those guys could be half hidden under the sand.

There were tons of the above crown conchs everywhere.

Coming back into the main channel, the above spoonbills were walking around. It was a very productive spoony day!

Waste plant birds

A group of great egrets looking at their reflection.

Four baby moorhens across the ditch. The parents were close by.

The duck snuck up on the spoony and spooked him.

Several families hanging out in the ditches at the waste plant.

Spoonbill watching me take pictures.

One day last week I stopped by the ditches that run along the Pinellas County waste plant. It was a rare day with no rain on the way home. The ditches were full from all of the recent rain and the birds seemed to be enjoying the sun and water. There was one spoonbill hanging out with a lot of other birds and ducks. At first he seemed interested in what I was doing but after a few minutes he went back to looking for food in the water.