Thursday, September 23, 2010

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!

12 comments:

  1. Oh wow what an amazing scene! Love it!
    The sky

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful pictures, and a great bird!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great photos Dina! We've been seeing more spoonbills around the mangroves by us too. The first time I've seen them just a few weeks ago. Otherwise I've seen them in Sarasota Bay at my uncle's house.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Magnificent shot of the spoonbill with open wings. The other birds are super, too.
    I know the stingray shuffle from the waters of the Sea of Cortez (aka the Gulf of California) in the Mexican state of Baja Norte. My dad always said the rays didn't want to sting anyone, they just didn't want to be stepped on as they lay camouflaged under a layer of sand.

    Kay
    Alberta, Canada

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a great time, I love all the birds.

    ReplyDelete
  6. North Tampa Bay is a wonderful place to kayak!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You saw so many wonderful birds! Awesome way to spend the day...paddling around with your camera!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely shots, particularly the spoonbill.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great photographs again Dina.
    Have a great day .
    Costas

    ReplyDelete
  10. Looks like you had a nice adventure. Love the first pic of the spoonbill -- wonderful! I wish I saw more of them down here.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, you sure spent more productive time! These are just intriguing.

    ReplyDelete