A baby eagle flies - Skywatch Friday

Sitting with one of the parents on the tree.

The baby eagle stars flapping it's wings. I think nothing of it since they've been doing this all along.




Flapping hard. The baby eagles thinks "I know I can make it."

And he's off!

Teetering on a close by snag, the baby makes a good landing.

"I'm king of the jungle!"

Sibling still sits on the nest. He (or she) is not quite ready to fly.

This was not the baby's first flight. I got to the cemetery two Sunday's ago and had hear the baby took it's first flight the day before. So it's either the 2nd or 3rd flight. I'll take that. I got there late in the afternoon not expecting much. I figured I'd find the family sleeping on the tree. I was only there a few minutes with a couple of other photographers when one of the babies kept flapping his wings while sitting on the nest. Then he took off. He didn't fly very far. Only about 5 trees over to a dead snag that the parents had been hanging out on for a while. I have spent so much time watching the babies just sit on the nest that it surprised me to see him take off. I was able to only get one good fly shot before he landed. He sat on the snag forever. The sibling didn't fly while I was there. I finally had to leave. I'm sad to say I probably won't make it back to the cemetery before they leave for good. I hope they all make it back next winter.

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Spring at Boyd Hill Nature Park

Lily pads are blooming and bees are buzzing.

Cormorants resting near the trail.

Anhinga is trying to hide under the statue. (Downtown St. Pete in the background.)

Butterflies are everywhere.

Big tooth giving me a grin. This guy was laying right under the boardwalk.  Since the water was so high he had traveled far into the swamp.

Lots of spring nature happening at Boyd Hill Nature Park in St. Petersburg. Tons of people are coming out to see the grooved bill ani that is still there but there's so much more to see at the park. This was the only alligator I saw. I think since the water was so high most of them were hiding. The place was full of butterflies and dragonflies. There were osprey flying around. They probably have nests somewhere in the park. It's a nice walk when it gets hot because the front trail closest to the lake is almost all shaded and you get the breeze over the water. I'll be heading there a lot this summer.

Sad eagle news in Pinellas county. But all is not lost.

Eagle followers in Pinellas county received bad news earlier this week. The baby eaglet from Tierre Verde, just outside of Fort Desoto Park, died on Monday. It had been flying for several weeks now. Florida Fish and Wildlife have taken the eaglet and will perform test to see if they can determine what happened. I've always read 40% of baby eagles don't survive but it's still so sad. Someone from the St. Petersburg Audubon posted on facebook that out of the 48 baby eagles that were born in Pinellas county this spring, this is the 2nd one that has died. I didn't hear what happened to the first one. I guess the county is beating the statistics so far. Here is my post of the pictures I had taken when the baby was still on the nest - Fort Desoto eagle post.

Below are pictures of the baby eagles at the St. Petersburg cemetery taken a few weeks ago. Both babies are just starting to flap their wings. By now they are probably flying from tree to tree. We're all holding our breath these eagles make it.

Florida foliage at the Pier.

On our walk around the park at the Pier I noticed how pretty all of the flowers looked for August. I guess all of the rain has helped perk up the overheated foliage. The purple flower had a bee trying to get some pollen. He looked stuck but I'm sure he was able to get out. The bottom picture was some type of fruit hanging on a palm tree. I would assume it's not edible but the orange and green on the tree looked pretty.

Pelican taking a bath at the Pier.

We were walking back to our car from the pier and saw this pretty pelican swimming around in the water. All of a sudden it started flapping it's wings and seemed to be taking a bath. It must be a young pelican based on the pale color and lack of any wear and tear on it.

St Pete Pier - Skywatch Friday

The above picture was taken on top of the the soon-to-be torn down St. Petersburg Pier. It's over 30 years old and falling apart so the city recently voted to tear it down. No word on what will replace it yet. A storm was moving in over the oh-so-small downtown St. Pete. A few of those tall buildings are new condos that are probably more than half empty. It's fun to go hang out at the St. Pete Pier. There are lots of picture taking opportunities. I grew up visiting it as a kid with my family so I'll miss it when it's gone.

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The inverted building at the end of the pier.

There's an outdoor restaurant on the top of the building so there's always grackles and cowbirds hanging around.

There's always lots of activity around the pier. This morning there was a sailboat class for kids.

The yacht basin has a few nice boats in it. There are usually dolphins and manatees swimming around in it but I did not see any this morning.

Baby squirrel

My friend Carrie and I were walking around the park near the St. Petersburg Pier and noticed something squirming under some overgrown mangrove trees. It looked like a baby squirrel had fallen out of the tree. It still had it's eyes closed but was moving around pretty good. There were several adult squirrels running around close to it. We decided to leave it alone and walked around for a while. We came back a little later and it was gone. We think the parents must have hauled it back in trees. There weren't any other animals around that could have gotten it. The parents were really watching us and came down close to the ground. Hopefully, the little squirrel was okay. I've never seen a baby before.

Feeding time at the St. Pete Pier

Someone had dropped some crackers on the sidewalk leading to the St. Petersburg pier. I didn't see anyone do it but it must have happened right before I got there. A few laughing gulls were already there starting to eat. A few seconds later they all started to swoop in. A handful of brown cowbirds found the crackers as well. The bottom two pictures are of a mom cowbird feeding her baby crackers. That's really good nutrition for a growing bird. They should be filling up on bugs (Yum).

Injured birds at the St. Pete Pier.

Pelican with one foot missing was hanging around the St. Pete Pier.

I couldn't decide if he was trying to scratch with his leg or just waving at me.

The above great blue heron has fishing line wrapped around his leg. It looks like it's attached somewhere in his chest. It was pretty far away from me, hanging out on the dock posts at the St. Pete Pier and I never even saw the line until I got home and was cropping the pictures later that night. It was very skittish and would fly from post to post if someone walked close by where it was sitting. Eventually it flew off towards the airport near there. I went back the next morning to see if he was still hanging around the Pier. If I could find him I would have called the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary to see if they could help him. There was no sign of him. I did see the one footed pelican again. He must live there. I'm going to try and stop by again after work one day this week.

Fishing should be illegal from all piers, but that's just my opinion. Yes, I know, there's a reason it's called a fishing pier. But they should be called a bird watching pier instead. Although, if there was no fishing on piers then the birds wouldn't hang around them. I can't win.

Pelicans at St. Petersburg Pier

These are just the beginnings of pelican pictures for the summer. They are such a fun bird to take pictures of. When it's really hot and all of the other birds have gone north for the summer these guys will be out diving (or begging) for fish all day. There's always a handful of pelicans hanging around the bait shop at the Pier in St. Pete. They sleep all over the pilings, railings and the top of the bait shop. In the morning they are usually pretty active flying around looking for fish. You can buy fish at the bait shop to feed them. They have a platform to stand on so you don't get attacked but it makes for great tourist photo opps.