Windy day at Honeymoon Island

Is this a caspian tern or common tern?  They both look alike. Anyway, it's fairly rare to see one here. Too many laughing gulls around.

Black vulture posing on snag.

This looks like a pine warbler. It was the closest thing in my Audubon guide.

Woodpecker hanging upside down.

 

I think this is a juvenile ring-billed gull (adult below). There were a handful of ring billed gulls hanging around on the beach. This one was eating the insides of the conch.

Adult ring billed gull. I like the way their feet matches their beak.

Kiteboarder at Honeymoon Island.  Looking down to Clearwater beach.

Two weekends ago it was very windy. I decided to hit the nature trail at Honeymoon Island to see what was going on with the eagles there. I had heard they had 2 baby chicks but they were still too small to show their heads. It didn't feel windy on the inside wooded trail but I decided to head north along the mangrove trail to the north end beach. The wind was blasting. There were only a few gulls hanging around, no other shorebirds.  There wasn't a large variety of birds on the trail. I think the weather had blown them away. There are tons of osprey, more on those later. I decided to hit the beach before I headed home but when I got there it was just too windy (and I was hungry) so I didn't stay long. The rocky beach section was full of live conchs. The gulls were feeding off of them and a few shell seekers were looking around.  A few kiteboarders were out and they were moving fast across the water.

When I got home my husband said "Weren't you cold?" I said "No, wimp."

Skywatch Friday - Bathing on the beach

I arrived as Redington Shores beach to find gray clouds lingering around one night after work last week. I had about 30 minutes before it started to rain. At least the weather cooled off.



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There was a puddle of water close to the shore line from the high tide earlier. The gulls and terns seemed to have fun taking a bath in the puddle. They were so busy dunking under the water and preening themselves that they didn't seem to mind me sitting down in front of them and taking pictures. After they finished, they flew around to get the excess water off. At that point it started to rain so they were going to get soaked anyway. It was time for me to go home.

Mating season on the beach

The signs are up. The big nesting areas are roped off. Fort Desoto has roped off a good portion of the north beach for nesting birds this year. The tons of locals who frequent that beach aren't going to be happy.

Sandwich terns doing a mating dance.

Sandwich terns getting busy.

The terns bring fish to entice the mate. It looks like the one on the right wasn't impressed.

Laughing gulls mating. She looks at me like "I'm going to need a cigarette."

It's mating season on Fort Desoto beach. The beach was full of gulls and terns getting down to business. Soon they will be hiding out nesting and fighting off the blackbirds and bigger gulls who will try and steal the eggs. Please, if you are visiting any Florida beaches, stay out of the roped off areas. It's easy to not see a nest and step on one or scare the parent into abandoning the nests.

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.