Wild birds at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

Great blue herons have a nest.

American oystercatcher out on the beach with a snack.

Great egret.

Baby wild pelican that is growing up at the sanctuary. Mom was probably an offspring of a permanent resident that was set free and comes back to have her babies on the property.

Wild pelican on the beach. He kept holding up his wing but he looked alright.

A lot of wild birds seem to hang out at the sanctuary. I guess they come to visit their injured friends. I just read on Facebook that the sanctuary had now sent people to help out with the oiled birds in the panhandle. They are going to be very busy there and here. Check them out if you are on Facebook.

Florida Rainy Season

Just in time, the rainy season in southwest Florida brings relief from hot temperatures in the late afternoon.

The wildlife photographer above was photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in June 2010.

This past week only allowed one trip to see some wildlife action going on in the area which was again chosen as Estero Lagoon at Fort Myers Beach.

The sky on that day appeared favorable for what I thought would be a great evening of wildlife observation and photography, but the storm that developed from the southeast was formidable and cut short the trip to the beach.

The Reddish Egret above was photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in June 2010.

At that time, I met the Virginian who told me of wildlife that walks up to him at home.

My new friend, Kevinn Fung, has recently advised me of an area of wildlife observation opportunity that I will hopefully be able to report about next week.

The Wilson's Plover above was photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in June 2010.

One of the species he noted observed recently has never been seen before in my travels and will be an exciting find even among the bugs he warns about.

In the sometimes uncomfortable environmental conditions of a Florida summer, it's my hope to get together with my recent acquaintances, as well as enthusiasts Bob Duckwall, Alena King, and the local birding master I've yet to meet, Tom Obrock, for some better observation of the next generation of wildlife in the area.

The wildlife observers above were photographed at Little Estero Lagoon in June 2010.

Stay tuned.

Just trying to stay cool...

Haven't been outside as much as I would like to recently due to the heat.

However, I did run across this Mallard family just trying to stay cool along the bank of the Ohio River in New Richmond today while out and about. Mommy Mallard was trying to keep the little ones cool :-)

Mallard family

Skywatch Friday - storm's a comin!

Summer storms are starting to come in. Above is the view coming home from work the last 2 days. I love it when it rains and cools off, but I hate sitting in traffic twice as long because it rains so it's a love/hate thing. My goal this summer though is to get more storm pictures. We'll see if I enough sense to come in from the rain!

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

Wild night herons at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

Baby night heron siblings sticking together high up in tree.

This baby was looking in the pelican aviary thinking "I want to go play with them!"


Upclose of a baby night heron, only a couple of months old.


One of the parents.

Adult night heron creeping around the travel cages that the sanctuary has been collecting.

The above birds are black crowned night herons. There's a large wild group of them breeding high up in the trees over the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. Right now every branch is full of them. I guess they come for a free handout and they know it's pretty safe from natural predators. It's funny how different the babies look from the parents. You would think they are completely different birds. Those bright red eyes are so amazing.

Skimmers nesting on the beach.

Nice trash!

The skimmers are getting down to the nesting business. There are hundreds of them nesting near St. Petersburg beach. In the next couple of weeks, we should have teeny, tiny baby skimmers running around. Just in time for the 4th of July fireworks and tourists to scare them to death. The skimmer nesting site is currently roped off but the tiny babies tend to wander outside of the ropes. If you are on any of the beaches in the Tampa bay area, please watch out for babies. And please take your trash with you! Hopefully, I'll be back with baby skimmer pictures in the next couple of weeks.

Small critters at Sawgrass Lake

The parks are full of dragonflies, butterflies and bees right now. I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park one day last week after work and almost all I could find was the above. The last picture is of some creepy spiders with really long legs. The mangroves around the boardwalk tower were full of webs with these spiders all over them. I used my zoom on these. Didn't want to get close at all.