Drive home from work

Dead fish liter the beach on Courtney Campbell Causeway.


No coats, gloves or hats for these guys.


Found this duck swimming close by. Not sure what type. He looks like a lesser scaup or ring neck but I don't think he's either one. Can anyone ID?

Sun went behind the clouds before sunset.

It was a sad drive home on Friday. I was able to leave work a little early and had my camera with me. It was the first time all week I had left work before dark. I had heard about all of the dead fish floating in the bay from being "cold stunned" but had not seen anything. I was thinking I would stop off on Courtney Campbell Causeway and take some pictures of shorebirds along the way and maybe get a sunset picture. Instead all I found was dead fish. They were floating in the water and washed up on the rocks and beach. The freezing temperatures we've had last week really hurt the wildlife here. They are not made to be in water below 40 degrees. I've heard all of the zoos, aquariums and wildlife centers are full of turtles and manatees that were suffering from the cold. It's warmed up this weekend. Hopefully it won't get that cold again. I did manage to find a duck floating around close by the beach.

Update - I just went out into the backyard and there are tons of fish floating in the channel behind our house. There wasn't any there Saturday morning. I guess the storms last night brought them in. Surprisingly it doesn't smell. Thanks Andrea for the ID on the duck. It's a female lesser scaup.

Global Cooling at Lakes Park

Free time to experience SW Florida's wildlife has been extremely limited these past weeks.

The Great Egret with Snowy Egret above was photographed at Lakes Park in January 2010.

On the first occasion for observation and photography this year where there wasn't an overcast sky, the temperature was near freezing at dawn. For that reason I made the very easy decision to simply stay warm indoors.

Earlier this week, I had heard two reports that there were significant fish deaths in lakes and ponds across the state of Florida. One of the reports specifically mentioned Lakes Park which I was compelled to visit to see the bird activity the fish might have attracted.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Lakes Park in January 2010.

Although I was not able to arrive at Lakes Park until near sundown on Tuesday, I still brought the camera with hopes to document something interesting. The bird activity was more prevalent than in any of my handful of other visits to the park in the past couple of years.

It was my greatest hope to see the Scarlet Ibis which has been observed at the park on occasion. Images available of it can certainly never do it justice for its beauty.

The Snowy Egret with Tricolored Heron above was photographed at Lakes Park in January 2010.

Although I saw many hundreds of birds in very close proximity including ibis, heron, egret, stork, the Scarlet Ibis was again elusive.

The timing of my visit to Lakes Park was a mere day and a half after I had heard of the fish kill, but the evidence of the event was non existent as might be explained by the great abundance of birds at the park. The cleanup effort was complete.

The Wood Stork above was photographed at Lakes Park in January 2010.

I took photographs of the birds I did see, primarily attempting to capture them in flight, and unfortunately had little success as the lighting was quite poor and I was shooting at a relatively high ISO setting to keep the shutter speed up.

It was a tremendous amount of fun in the experience nonetheless.

Another report heard this past week was that the temperature of the Gulf of Mexico had reached the high of that in the Atlantic Ocean. Does that mean a disappearance of the Gulf Stream if not just temporarily?

My first owl sighting

Baby great horned owl peeking out from the nest.

Same baby owl about a month later sitting on a branch.

One of the parents of above baby owl.

Screech owl in Christina's backyard. (Picture taken by Christina Button).

I recently watched a great movie on the Disney channel called Hoot. It's about a boy who moves to south Florida and meets new friends and tries to save owls from losing their homes to development. It made me think of the first time I saw an owl out in the wild. It was this past spring at a small park not far from work. I was walking around taking pictures and someone stopped me and said "Have you seen the baby owl?". They showed me where it was and I was hooked. The parents were close by in another tree. I went back to that park every other week during the spring and got pictures of the baby growing up. My friend Christina was telling me she gets screech owls in her backyard. She sent me the above picture to show how cute they are. I'm going back to that park often this spring hoping to see a new baby.

Wildlife at work

It's finally sunny and not freezing here in the Tampa bay area. I went out yesterday to get something to eat for lunch. As I was parking my car in the parking lot at work I looked over and saw a great blue heron hiding on the edge of one of the ponds on the property. I pulled out my camera and walked over and took a picture. Walking into the building I saw a little baby bunny heading under the stairs outside the building. He looked really tiny. I'm sure he's glad it's not so cold today. I hadn't seen any bunnies in a couple of months so I was surprised to see this little guy hopping around so close to the building. Maybe he was trying to hide from the cold hungry alligators. There are currently 7 on the property.

Birds of prey in the neighborhood

Osprey looking at his lunch.

Osprey flying off with his catch.

Red shoulder hawk sitting on the lamp post in the drizzle.

Belted kingfisher warming up in the sun on my neighbor's dock.

This weekend was really cold. By Florida standards anyway. Saturday it rained most of the day and never got over 36 degrees. Sunday was sunny but never got over 43 degrees. Some areas an hour west of Tampa got snow early Saturday morning. Needless to say I stayed in most of the weekend which I needed to do anyway to catch up on chores and have my water heater replaced. I did manage to take a few pictures of some birds that came to visit my neighborhood. The resident osprey came both days to each lunch on top of my neighbor's sailboat. Saturday I was looking out my kitchen window and saw the hawk sitting on the corner lamp post in the rain. I ran and got my camera and manage to take the above before he took off. Late Sunday afternoon the kingfisher came to visit. All pictures were taken through a window.

Baby shoebill stork at zoo

I'm going to try and get to Lowry Park zoo this weekend. Even though the high for both days will barely reach 40 degrees. A Christmas miracle has happened. The zoo just announced that on Christmas day a African shoebill stork baby was born. These birds are very rare and this is the first chick that has been born in North American and the 2nd in the world in captivity. Hopefully I can get a picture of it. Besides with this cold weather here it feels like all of the wild birds have flown even further south, maybe they all headed to the Keys. Normally there are always birds (egrets, moorhens and osprey) in the 3 ponds outside my window at work. This week I haven't seen any birds.

Attached is a picture of the baby shoebill with it's parents from TBO.com

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jan/07/pair-rare-birds-raising-chick-tampa-zoo/

2009 Year In Review II

JULY
The air boat above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in July 2009.

All four opportunities to get into the field led me to San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve. The adult male wading birds in particular were at the tail end of showing their breeding colors. All visits to the beach were made in mid afternoon to as late as sunset. I recall at least one occasion when the sand gnats were particularly bad. It was at these times that I had good opportunities to practice attempting to get a better photograph of BIFs (birds in flight). The Reddish Egret put on a great feeding show under less than ideal lighting conditions on the last visit of the month. At a low tide, I was very surprised to see an airboat make its way over the flats and into the West channel. Needless to say, it spooked virtually every bird from my immediate area.

AUGUST
The Snail Kite above was photographed at Harnes Marsh Preserve in August 2009.

I again made numerous trips to Bunche Beach Preserve, three afternoon visits and two in the morning. All were productive for observation of prolific bird activity and photography. Harnes Marsh Preserve was visited for the first time late in the month. I made my first observations of the Snail Kite and Limpkin on this visit to Harnes Marsh. My visit to Bunche Beach on the 23rd offered a territorial battle between two Black-bellied Plovers that lasted a little over three minutes as detailed in the 20 shots I took of them.

SEPTEMBER
The Tricolored Heron above was photographed at Harnes Marsh Preserve in September 2009.

Four more trips to Harnes Marsh Preserve were made including one where I would walk around the preserve in its entirety. The experiences were greatly enjoyable even considering the warmer conditions. I observed the Sandhill Crane for the first time at the Northern edge of the preserve on the 18th.

OCTOBER
The Semipalmated Plover juvenile above was photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in October 2009.

With accommodating weather on a pair of days off from work, I was able to visit Little Estero Lagoon (Critical Wildlife Area) and then Sanibel Lighthouse and Bunche Beach Preserve later in the month. It was my hope to see raptor migration that was not to be this year. I coincidentally met up with a troop of wildlife enthusiasts at Bunche Beach that were participating in Ding Darling Days 2009. My visit to Bunche Beach was directly after I had gone from the lighthouse to DDNWR Wildlife Drive only to find them closed as they are to the general public every Friday. I knew that, but had forgotten.

NOVEMBER
The Tricolored Heron above was photographed at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in November 2009.

It was at this time that I was reminded of one of four photo entries made to Audubon magazine earlier in the summer for their inaugural photo contest which I had forgotten about. I was contacted by Steve Freligh, affiliated with Nature's Best Photography, who notified me that I was considered as a finalist in the amateur category. I made a quick trip across a vast expanse of Florida early in the month while experiencing the East and Panhandle regions of the Great Florida Birding Trail. I passed through 12 "clusters" and 31 venues on the trip. A tremendous highlight was visiting the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Later in the month I made my sixth trip to Harnes Marsh Preserve where I would again document another species of bird I hadn't photographed before. I also observed here on this occasion what appeared to be a territorial battle between two Great Blue Herons where a drowning seemed assured.

DECEMBER
The Marbled Godwit above was photographed at San Carlos Bay: Bunche Beach Preserve in December 2009.

A trip to Lovers Key State Park was made after much too long a period of time. The erosion at the beach was extremely obvious and I was told that it may be a couple more years before replenishment. The wind was from the South with an opportunity to observe some great action at New Pass as usual. Three afternoon visits to Bunche Beach were made with one other in the morning. I also made a visit to Little Estero Lagoon. At the latter two venues, I had the experience of being in the water at close range to Bottlenose Dolphins. These experiences were a little unnerving as a result of not keeping an eye on them at all times. I was contacted by Audubon to advise me of publication of an image with honorable mention of a Little Blue Heron taken at Bunche Beach Preserve in November 2008.