Sunset - Skywatch Friday

Just a few recent sunset pictures taken along the Courtney Campbell Causeway for Skywatch Friday. I'm busy spending the day with hubby on the couch watching bad Christmas movies and stuffing myself. Hopefully it will be sunny tomorrow and I can head out to a park to walk off all of the feast.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

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View from the house - Skywatch Friday

I took this a couple of weeks ago when the moon was going down in the backyard. When I opened the blinds while I was getting ready for work early in the morning  and saw this I ran outside and snapped a quick shot in my robe.

After driving home from work in the pouring rain, I pulled up in the driveway to this. We've been getting a lot of rainbows lately.

Another shot from my driveway.

Sunset in my backyard.

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St. Petersburg at twilight - Skywatch Friday

Sailboat lessons going on in the bay. They were just coming into the sailboat basin when we got there. I noticed later when I downloaded the pictures that there's a dolphin coming up for air in the lower left corner.

Sailboat class in front of the pier.

The new Salvador Dali museum. I haven't been since the new building opened.

The sun going down on yacht basin.

The airport across from the St. Pete Yacht Club.

Clouds across the bay.

The St. Petersburg Pier at night.

Some views of St. Petersburg, Florida, from the bay side.

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My new bird feeder - Skywatch Friday

"That crazy lady staring at me through the bedroom window thinks I can't get to her bird feeder. I'm going to show her."

"This is way too easy."

"Oh, wait, I think I might fall."

Finally, a bird. But it's just an ole blue jay. He'll probably scare way all of the small cute birds.

Ibis on our neighbor's dock in the rain.

Our resident night heron comes to visit as the sun goes down.

Perfect ending to the weekend.

Yes, I made it way to easy for those squirrels. I put the bird feeder too close to the branch. I'm going to try and move it farther out and lower it. I might try and find something to put over the top so they can't slide down so easily. I know, squirrels always figure out a way. At one point I had one squirrel on the feeder and 3 others on the ground below it chowing down on the seed that had fallen. Any suggestions?

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A Sunday in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

A hawk was sitting on my neighbor's sailboat in the morning.

Blue jay screaming at the hawk.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher sitting in the grapefruit tree. It's the first time I've seen a blue-gray in our backyard. I think he was watching the blue jay at the top of the tree.

Later, as the clouds moved in I noticed the downy woodpecker on the same (almost dead) grapefruit tree.

Another downy picture.

The resident osprey showed up later with a fish.

Creepy clouds moving in right before the sun went down.

Our grapefruit tree is going to have to go soon. It's about 75% dead. It covers around 25% of our backyard and has been there since the house was build back in the 60's. It's been great for shading part of the house and I'm going to miss it (except for picking up rotten grapefruit for half the year). I don't know what I want to replace it with. Something that's already half grown so we can get some shade fairly soon. We don't want another fruit tree since it's just too much work to pick up the fruit. Our soil is sandy and the tree would sit in between our house and the seawall. It would get lots of sun. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Almost night in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

A Saturday night in the backyard. The sun was going down behind the palm tree.

More sunset.

Blue heron on my neighbor's dock. The sun was almost down and I tried to use my flash to get better light but I didn't have much reach.

My shutter frog came out a little early. I usually only see him after it's dark.

A lizard on a plant in my screened in porch. They sneak in under the screened door but we have to make sure they don't get in the house.

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A weekend in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

Night heron sitting on our dock. It was just starting to sprinkle, even though the sun was out on the other side of the house. He sat in the rain for a while.

This lizard had a pretty green glow. He was sitting inside our screened porch.

I looked out the side window when I heard thunder and saw this guy in our yard.

New oranges after the rain. They won't be ready until December.

After the storm the sun was trying to come out right before it went down.

Wow, it's September 1st. Where did the summer go? School is back in so traffic is awful again. I pass near 3 schools to get to work so I have to now get up 15 minutes earlier to get to work on time. Of course, I still have at least 2 more months of summer heat. The sun is shifting and by the end of October it will be too dark for me to go out after work and take pictures. I need to use the daylight time wisely now but I work in retail and we are getting ready for the holidays so I'm cranking in the overtime. Everyone says it's fall migration season so I'm going to try and get out this weekend to find some tiny little birds. Wish me luck.

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A goose on the beach - Skywatch Friday

I'm taking pictures of the baby skimmers and happen to look down the beach. I thought I must have had heat stroke when I saw a goose walking around the beach. I've never seen a goose on a beach in the Tampa bay area.

Then I realized what was going on. Barbara, the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary hospital administrator, was taking the goose for a walk down the beach. He must be a resident of the sanctuary. Or he might be getting some exercise before he's released back in the wild.

He seemed very tame and enjoying his walk. He stayed pretty close to Barbara.

Short video of the goose walking back to the sanctuary.

Ahhh! The sun was going down. It was time to go home.

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Drive home from work - Skywatch Friday

I have to drive across a bridge to get home from work. Or rather I sit on the bridge and crawl in traffic. I have my choice of bridges since I both work and live in between the two. I can take Howard Franklin/275 bridge into Tampa or the Courtney Campbell/Highway 60 bridge. If I take the Courtney Campbell bridge, I also have to take the Bayside Bridge. I usually try and check at least two traffic sites on the web before I leave to see if either bridge has a wreck on or near it. Then I take the other bridge. If I'm sitting on the 275 bridge which is always slower, I keep an eye for dolphins swimming by. If I take the other bridge, I can stop on the access road and take pictures. Last week I had my camera in the car and took the Courtney Campbell bridge home. I stopped off right before dark and got the above pictures. There weren't a lot of birds around since the day was so nice. Too many people had been hanging around the causeway all afternoon. The drive home is always nice when traffic is not bad. So is the view from the rear view mirror.

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Sunset in my backyard - Skywatch Friday

For just a few weeks, twice a year, the sun sets right down the middle of our channel in our backyard. The rest of the time it's either on the extreme left or right and goes down past trees. We're at the end of the channel. Looking down from our backyard you have to take a left in front of the houses at the other end to get out into the open bay. A few weekends ago we had perfect weather and I had to go outside and take some pictures. By now the sun goes down on the right side of the channel behind all of the palm trees.  Below is the view from my kitchen, taken through the dining room window.

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