Hoodies down the street

On my way home, I pass a small pond that leads into an office complex. Mallards are usually the only ducks I see swimming in it. Recently, I was riding in the car with hubby and looked over at the pond as we drove by it and saw hooded mergansers swimming in it. Of course, I yell out "There are hoodies in the pond." A couple of minutes later we were home and I grabbed my camera and drove back to pond. Since it was a Sunday afternoon there was no one around so I parked in the office lot along the side of the road against the pond. I rolled down the window and took all of the above from the car. Even though I stayed in the car, they still kept their eyes on me and stayed on the other side of the pond. At one point the male started diving underneath and came up with a berry of some sort. As I was leaving, I noticed the below tricolored heron was over on the side of the pond in the reeds. He must have been thinking "What is that crazy lady doing in her car?"

After work walk at Carillon Park

Female anhinga posing for a portrait. They love to do this.

I think this is a pine warbler.

Tricolored heron

Green heron on the boardwalk.

There's a small lake with a boardwalk around it about 5 minutes from work (and that's if I hit the one red light). I don't go there that often to look for birds since it's always busy with people jogging and walking their dogs on the boardwalk. But since it was the last week of daylight after work I stopped by for a quick walk. It was such a beautiful night, it was packed with people. I didn't see anything unusual but at least I got a good walk in before heading home. Above are a few things I saw on my walk. There's always a lot of anhingas around and they are not afraid of the joggers or dogs. They will sit on the boardwalk rail while you walk right past them. If you stop or get to close they will wave their beak at you but won't leave. I try not to get too close because I'm always afraid they'll stick me with that beak.

Boring ole birds at Fort Desoto and a missed sunrise.

Tricolored heron with a tiny fish.

Bye Bye. I love the way they skip over the water as they are taking off.

Pelican flyby.

Pelican diving for fish.

Lunch at the fish factory (Fort Desoto). The pelicans were diving for fish out in the bay.

It was a gorgeous Sunday morning. After sleeping in, hubby and I decided to head down to Fort Desoto to spend time on the beach. I decided to bring my camera and try my bird luck at the north beach marsh while hubby took a nap in his beach chair. There was almost no birds in sight. Instead I ran into a strange flock of photographers heading down to the north beach sanctuary. I joined them and we had no luck there as well.  The poor tricolored heron was doing some fishing so we all took tons of shots of him. Quickly he got tired of us watching him and flew off.

The big story of the day was the spectacular sunrise, which I missed by sleeping in. I got teased for letting sleep get in the way of a great sunrise picture. One of these days....   Check out what I missed -   Dan's sunrise video,   Jess's post,  Michael's post.

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.

Birds at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

Green heron hiding in the trees.

Great blue heron posing in front of the St. Petersburg downtown skyline (way off in the distance).

Tricolored heron

Male anhinga looking up.

White ibis looking down.

Nothing different or unusual about these birds. This was all I could find at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. It was a hot walk and most of the birds were resting either high in the trees or close to the water to get a good breeze. The birds all looked lazy and sleepy. This was around 9am so they were already getting ready for a morning nap. I don't blame them. I managed to walk around the park for about 2 hours and then went home for my afternoon nap.

Two cool birds at Kapok park

Tricolored heron coming in for a landing.

Tricolored herons sometimes act like reddish egrets. They seem to use their wings to shade the sun so they can see the fish better in the water. Or maybe he's just doing his eagle imitation.

Off he goes giving me a look as he flies by.

As I wandered around under the big trees, I looked up and saw this big thing staring at me.  I don't see many red tailed hawks. We get a lot of red shouldered hawks.

As I crept around the big tree, he was watching my every move. I wandered off down the path but kept my eye on him for a while. He never moved. It was starting to get dark so maybe that was his sleeping spot.

Carillon Park after work - Skywatch Friday

Anhinga sitting on the boardwalk.  These girls are used to people being close. You can walk right by them on boardwalk.

Juvenile moorhens in the green muck.

Juvenile tricolored heron hiding in the reeds.

Small rainbow coming from the fountain in the lake.

Male anhinga drying his wings on a fountain platform that wasn't turned on.

Another hot walk around a park close by work. At least that way I miss traffic. There wasn't anything too interesting there. I did see a few small alligators but they stayed pretty far away. The anhingas think they own the boardwalk around the lake. Most people are jogging by and the birds don't even flinch. They just keep preening. If you stop and stare at them and slowly walk up to them, they wave their beaks at you and honk.

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

The family life of tricolored herons.

"I still look good for my age." An adult tricolored heron strutting.

"We're hungry!!!"

"Contemplating life." These babies are getting big.

He's saying "What's that big black thing attached to your face?"

Three siblings being quiet for about a second.

Newborns.

A short video of a tricolored heron parent bring in food to the babies who are pretty big at this point. They are very aggressive and were attacking her for food.

Tricolored herons are my favorite babies to take pictures of. They're so animated and have the funniest looks on them. Tricolored herons are not as common as great egrets or great blue herons. I see those birds everywhere. Only occasionally do I see a tricolored heron. It's weird to watch a group of them fighting over sticks for nests and space on the bushes. I guess it's like The Truman Show for birds. We stand on the boardwalk and watch all of these birds live their life. Getting food, making nests, raising babies. They seem to tolerate us watching but could probably get nasty with that sharp beak if we got too close. Do they know that humans don't want to cross that water with alligators in it? Hopefully, they'll all come back next spring.

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

Kapok Park after work.

Limpkin with a snack.

Follow the leader. Baby mallards following mom.

Red bellied woodpecker. You can barely see the red on it's belly.

It's checking to make sure it's a red bellied woodpecker as well.

Baby blue heron. This was taken in bad light but I thought it was interesting to see how the blue is starting to come out.

Tri-colored heron standing guard.

I stopped by Kapok Park in Clearwater on the way home from work last week. There wasn't anything unusual there. It was a nice walk anyway. It's a challenge to photograph there after work because the sun is going to down on the opposite side of all the best stuff. There's a lot of shade as well. The best time for the light is in the morning but I can't make it there before work so I go after work. I was really disappointed there were no great horned owls there. For the last 2 spring seasons a couple have raised a baby there. No owls this year. I'm going to try and get to the park quite a bit this summer. It beats sitting in traffic.

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

Nature's fashion show at Gatorland.

The great egret gets the lime green color above the beak. Normally, that is a dark yellow that blends in with the beak. They grow the white feather strings that hang down in the spring.

Cattle egret with beige feathers on his chest and head. Normally this would be all white. The beak turns bright purple and orange. His legs get turn brighter.

That little white feather on the head pops up and the tri-colored heron gets a little more burgundy in his feathers. His red eye becomes much brighter.

The snowy egret's yellow beak and feet turn pink and orange.

Pretty pink face.

The adult breeding birds are really pretty this time of year. Bird rookeries are fashion shows for birds. I guess it's their nature's makeup. A couple of weekends ago I headed back to Gatorland to see if there were any more babies. Lots of adults birds with beautiful faces prancing around. Most have coupled up and are either building nests or already have babies. I'm going to try and get to Gatorland one more time to catch the tri-colored heron babies before the season winds down.