Birds and dragonflies at Kapok Park

Female anhinga stretching out. I love it when they do this. I guess that's why they are also called the "snakebird". Anhinga is just a brazilian word for snake bird.

Juvenile blue heron's got a scratch. It's got just a little bit of white feathers left. Soon it will be all blue and look like the one below.

Adult blue heron. It could be the parent of the one above.

"Just me and my shadow." sings the dragonfly.

Pretty red one.

I am not a dragonfly expert. Most of the time they all look alike to me. There are hundreds of different species and my head would explode trying to learn them, work full time and take pictures of birds. I admire people who can learn them all. But they are so pretty. And when there's not a lot of birds around in the hottest months of the year, there's tons of dragonflies to try and take pictures of. I took another trip to Kapok Park after work recently. It's a challenge to find unusual birds this time of year. All of the babies have grown up and it's still a little too early for fall migration. I'm not sure if that juvenile blue heron is the same one I keep seeing there. I've only seen one. His feathers keep getting bluer and bluer each time I'm there. Soon I won't be able to tell him apart from the other adults.

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Kapok Park after work

Red winged blackbird yelling at me to get off his boardwalk.

Juvenile blue heron. He must be getting close to hitting that one year mark. Blue herons are born all white then over the course of their first year they change to blue.

Red bellied woodpecker getting a snack.

I was leaving and it was just starting to get dark. There's a deep ditch close by the small parking area. I heard the limpkin calling before I saw him. It was dark down in the ditch so I turned my flash on and took the below picture. I realized the ditch was full of snails. There were 3 limpkins in the ditch having a feast. This was right before the heavy rains started so the water in the ditch was pretty low.

One of the million dragonfly pictures that I will take. When birding gets slow in the heat of the summer I start shooting dragonflies.

One of the normal sights I see on my drive home. Osprey sitting on the light post. A couple of weekends ago, hubby and I were on our way back from the beach and counted 28 osprey sitting on lightposts on the big bridge across the Tampa bay. That broke the record of 22 from several summers ago.

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Little critters at Sawgrass Lake Park

Green heron. One of the few birds I saw there.

Looking down the river from the end of the boardwalk.

Dragonfly season is in full swing.

Butterfly. (or moth?)

Another butterfly.

I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park after work a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty close to work. It's starting to get hot and muggy. There weren't a lot of birds there. This park is usually more of a miss than hit when it comes to birds. I almost always see green herons and anhingas but that's about all. Of course, I usually only go after work and there might be a different crowd there in the morning. I can usually find good critters there though.  I don't know my butterfly species at all. I barely know the bird ones so it will be a while before I start to learn them. They are pretty though, when they sit still. While I was there I got bitten several times by big brown flies. I had a good coat of Off on and still got bit. Those biting flies are worse than mosquitoes. The bites itched for days. No amount of hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion helped. If anyone has a great remedy, please let me know.



Random stuff at the zoo

Grasshoppers are popping up everywhere.

Dragonfly at the zoo.

Baby penguin trying to get out his playpen.

The new baby penguin is so cute. The keeper kept the baby close to her. It's still a little young to be out running around with the grown ups but soon it will be out officially on exhibit.

One of the resident manatees. You can see the boat marks across it's back.

Lots of flowers everywhere now.

Boardwalk at Carillon - My World Tuesday

After work last week I stopped at a park close by for a walk. I was walking along this boardwalk where there are always a lot of joggers. The above anhinga is so use to people now she would not move for me. I was afraid to get that close to walk by the tight boardwalk. After a few minutes I shooed her away with my camera.

This is the first time I've seen moorhens preening each other. My cockatiels at home do it all the time but I've never seen wild birds like these do it. That shows how use to people they are here.

The above tricolored heron was strutting along the lakeshore.

Dragonflies are still everywhere.

This small lake has a few small alligators.

I wanted to get some exercise in before the drive home one day last week after work. Now that it's getting darker earlier I have to hit some places really close to work. Carillon Park is an office park that has a small lake with a boardwalk around it. After work it's full of joggers and walkers so most of the big water birds are use to having people around. It started out sunny then the clouds moved in right before I left.

Hot night at Lake Seminole Park

The usual dragonfly.


Great egret posing. He must be used to all of the people at the park. He didn't even flinch when I stopped to take his picture.

Tri color heron landing in the reeds. Taken into the sun right before sunset.

Great egret flying across the lake.

Juvenile moorhen screaming for a snack. I love their big yellow feet.

A large group of ducks waiting for a handout. The stick in the upper middle is a big sign that says "Do not feed the wildlife, including ducks." People ignore it. There's a spot at the lake near a small parking lot that the ducks congregate at. People park there and feed the ducks. The ducks are very aggressive and will charge at your ankles if you don't feed them.

I stopped off at Lake Seminole Park one day last week to check on the limpkin nest. I had been there 2 weeks before and there were several eggs in a nest built on a shallow section of the lake. I wanted to see if the eggs had hatched. Since it had been raining every day for a week the nest was under 2 feet of water. I couldn't see from the boardwalk if the eggs were still there so I don't know if they had already hatched and the family had moved on. I didn't see any limpkins on that end of the lake which is unusual. Sad, hot and depressed I started the walk back to my car. I was thinking I wouldn't find any birds around but I did manage to see a few before I left.

Loggerhead shrike 1, Dragonfly 0

I was driving into the parking lot at the fishing pier at Fort Desoto and noticed a strange looking bird sitting on the utility wire. I thought "Wow, that's a loggerhead shrike." You don't see them very often in this area. I drove over to it and parked and got out of my car with my camera. He was holding some kind of dragonfly. He seemed to enjoy having me watch him eat his catch. After he gulped down the dragonfly he cleaned his beak on the wire and then flew away.

Interesting things at Fort Desoto

This was an interesting sight. He was paddling in the north beach lagoon. It was pretty shallow there.

Yes, another dragonfly picture.


Someone had made a shell tree and the dragonflies were all landing on it.


Cute little plover running around.


First time I've seen a bunny at Ford Desoto. He was at the north beach.

One night last week I stopped off at Fort Desoto after work. Yea, it's on the way home if I take a 35 minute detour. It was hot and not crowded. There weren't many birds there. Only a few willets and plovers (besides the usually laughing gulls). The park is still full of dragonflies. They were everywhere. The highlight of the trip was having the bunny jump out from some mangroves. He sat there eating grass in front of me. I heard the long billed curlew has been hanging around the north beach lagoon again so I'm going to have to head back down there soon to find him.

Quiet morning at Largo Botanical Gardens

I went for a walk at the Largo Botanical Gardens last weekend and didn't see too many birds. In fact, I think the only thing I saw were moorhens. The above picture is of a juvenile moorhen. I didn't see any alligators there and usually they are everywhere. I'm assuming they are hiding under the water. There were tons of butterflies and dragonflies buzzing everywhere. If it wasn't so hot I probably would have spent more time trying to get different pictures. After two hours in the heat I headed home.