East beach turnaround at Fort Desoto

I think this was a short billed dowitcher. He was digging pretty deep.

I think this is a first winter common tern. He seemed to be the lone common on the beach.

Tricolored heron darting for food.

Crabs heading down to the water.

Fiddler crabs on the beach.

I got to the east beach turnaround at Fort Desoto pretty early in the morning. Only a few fishermen were there. The tide was really low so I walked along the mangroves pretty far past the normal part of the beach. I didn't see the crabs as I walked along the mangroves. When I was walking back to my car I saw this movement in the sand. At first I thought it was a lot of leaves that had blown onto the beach. As I got closer, I realized it was crabs coming from the mangroves. I took some pictures from pretty far away thinking they would scurry back to the mangroves as I got closer to them but they didn't leave. They let me get pretty close. This was the closest I have gotten to these little fiddler crabs. One thing I didn't notice at first is that some of the crabs have the pincher on the left side and some on the right side. So, I looked it up.  Only male crabs have the enlarged claw. It can be on either side. Females have two small claws. But, males can lose their enlarged claw for a while when they molt and regrow another one. So just by looking at one with no large claw it could be either a male or female. Unless, you look real close and see the two small claws on the female. Good luck getting that close.

Safety Harbor fishing pier - Skywatch Friday

Manatees kissing.

Mom, where'd you get those scars?

Dinner.

Laughing gull with his own dinner.

"Sailing takes me away."

The sun is going down.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

A crab, a boat and some birds

I think this is the largest crab I've seen on the beach. They usually scurry so fast when they see people but this one let me get pretty close before he headed to his hole.

The usual crowd at the north beach marsh: willets, marbled godwits, laughing gulls, some dowitchers close to the grass, one oystercatcher in the middle and the front of a royal tern in the back.

The laughing gull looking for a spot. The marbled godwits with their pink toothpick beaks really stick out.

I was watching these two oystercatchers trying to sleep and as I crept up near them the little dowitcher (I think this is a dowitcher) was trying to hide between the two of them.

This great egret stole this fish from a fisherman who was not paying attention to his bait fish. When will these guys learn.

A snowy egret and great egret waiting for a fisherman to turn his back.

This boat looked pretty beat up and abandoned near the northern tip of Fort Desoto.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site! My World

Also, check out more birds at

Storms across the bay - Skywatch Friday

Found: lost boat with weird writing on the bottom.

Manatee coming up for air.

Tampa from across the bay.

Storms heading my way.

Clouds over the bay.

Feisty crab shaking his one claw at me.

Two crabs fighting over the same hole.

I decided to go to the grocery store on the way home instead of a park since the rain was moving in. Since I had my camera in the car, I decided to stop at the fishing pier in Safety Harbor. It gives a good view of the storms around the northern end of the bay. I ended up staying a while since those nasty storms were coming from where I needed to go to the grocery store. There weren't any birds around except for a few pelican flybys. There were, however, a few manatees swimming right under the pier. The water was dark from all the recent rain so you could only see them when they came up for air. It's fun to see the reaction of tourists who are seeing manatees for the first time. I don't think people realize just how big some of them are until they are standing over them.

The tide was low and there was no water around the seawall along the parking lot. As I was walking back to my car I noticed movement in the sand. I realized there were tons of these little crabs running around. As I walked up to the seawall, they ran into their little holes. I stood there for a few minutes without moving and they started to come out of their holes. I think they are a type of fiddler crab. They only had one claw. I thought they were cute and loved the pink color. It was starting to get dark so I headed to the store.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday

My World Tuesday - Birds at the North Beach sanctuary & a crab too.

Above is what I see when I walk out to the beach from the parking lot of the north beach sanctuary at Fort Desoto. The sanctuary is a large part of the beach that is roped off so only the birds can hang out in that spot. This gives them a place to stop over and rest during migration and a place to hide from the tourist's kid chasing after them. The lighthouse is on another island, Egmont Key, close by. Now that the summer storms have gone, it's absolutely gorgeous there.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!   http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/.

A mixture of birds flying around. I'm not sure what spooked them but they all just started flying around in circles. 

There's tons of space roped off but they all seem to huddle together. Above is a small spot of the huddle. Skimmers, terns and gulls are the most common in the group.

The above ruddy turnstone had wandered outside the roped area.

Great blue heron flying by.

The beach was full of these tiny crabs.

Birds at Honeymoon Island (and a crab too).

Two baby opsrey letting me know it's their trail I'm walking on. (It is called Osprey Trail at Honeymoon Island for a reason.)

One of the parents looking around.

Willet

Cormorant going for a swim.

Loney least tern on the beach.

Last weekend I went to Honeymoon Island to walk the Opsrey Trail. I hadn't been there in several months. It was so hot, even early in the morning. There's not much going on there except for ospreys. Lots of them still hanging around the nests. I didn't see many other birds until I got out on the beach. There was a controlled burn done recently on the first part of the trail, so that may have scared off some of the birds for a while. The northern beach did not have much bird traffic as well. I think my next trip out to the trail will not be until the eagles come back, hopefully December. I did see the below crab on shoreline.