Baby brown pelicans at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

The two white pelicans on the left are babies. The white one on the right is a young one as well.

Baby pelican sleeping.


Mom in the middle is feeding one of the babies. The baby has it's head down mom's throat getting regurgitated fish. Yum!

The pelican family hanging out.

Another baby with mom.

This one had triplets.

With all of the depressing news about the oiled birds lately, I thought I would post some cute pictures of baby pelicans. This week I stopped by the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary after work. They have big aviaries with permanently injured pelicans that live there. Most are missing a wing or two. The pelicans must be happy because they are breeding like mad. The babies eventually get released when they grow up. The sanctuary is non-profit and they are so busy. They are feeding baby birds that people bring in who are injured or lost a parent. They get injured birds of prey to help. They are already helping out with oiled birds that are being sent down to be rehabilitated and getting ready for the clean up if we get it. Please stop by and see the place. It's free to walk around and see all of the birds. They also have owls, hawks and other assorted birds. A donation would really help right now.

http://www.seabirdsanctuary.com/

New macro filters

I bought a new set of macro filters to add on my lens last week. I didn't want to spend the money for a macro lens right now and I heard this was a great way to get some close ups. I spent one afternoon this weekend taking some pictures with the new filters in my backyard. You just screw the filter on the end of the lens. It really did let me get closer to the object. It is harder to focus though. I had to manually focus on everything. You are suppose to use a tripod when you do macro photography. Of course, it didn't make it out of the closet.

The filters are great for flowers and lizards but I'm sure it will be hard to get any closer with birds. Except for the one below. I had to get a close up of my cockatiel, Buddy. Buddy is 17 years old and loves to pose for the camera. He will walk right up and peck at the camera. My other cockatiel is scared to death of the camera so I don't get her picture often.

Baby Blue heron update

All of the above birds are blue herons. I stopped by the Lowry Park Zoo recently to see how big the baby blue herons were getting. The small palm trees in the alligator exhibit there are full of blue heron nests. The babies look almost like adults now except they are white until their first full molt. They were so busy trying to walk on the branches and flapping their wings. They have so much personality. A few of them were old enough to have their beaks just starting to turn dark. None had started getting blue feather spots yet. I'll check back in another month or so to see if I can get pictures of them with blue and white spots.

Birds at Sawgrass Lake Park

Roseate spoonbill scratching.


Spoonbill preening. He was busy getting ready for bed since the sun was about to go down.

Female anhinga posing on a branch.

Close by the female was this male anhinga.

Pileated woodpecker, the largest woodpecker, was high up in a tree. I heard the pounding sound and looked around and saw the flash of red.

One day last week I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park after work. It was the first time I had been there when I didn't see a single alligator. There are tons of them that live at the park. They must have all been under water. A small boy walked up to me with his mom and said "Have you seen any alligators?" I hated to say no but I hadn't this visit. I did see several turtles though. There weren't a lot of birds as well. I walked the entire boardwalk and saw very little. As I was nearing the end of it I heard a pounding noise. I walked back a few feet and saw a flash of red high up in some dead trees. There were 2 woodpeckers! It was hard to get decent pictures. They kept hiding on the other side of the tree and the sun was so bright at the time. Then, as I was about to walk to my car I saw the above spoonbill preening on a stump. A spoony, 2 woodpeckers and a 2 mile walk made it a successful trip.

Memorial Day kayaking

Osprey sitting in the dead mangroves.

The tops of the mangrove bushes across from Courtney Campbell Causeway are all dead. The cold winter must have really damaged them. There is green underneath so it may take a while for them to grow back.

Sandwich tern on one of my neighbor's docks. I don't usually see any sandwich terns in our neighborhood.

I think these are willets on the left. Laughing gull on the right.

Another osprey sitting on a channel marker. He just watched me paddle by.

I had a pelican floating along side of me for a while.

Since I had Monday off, I decided to go kayaking for a few hours while hubby watch sports on tv. It was hot. There weren't too many birds out nor did I see any dolphins or manatees. I think this is the first time I haven't seen dolphins when I go kayaking in the channels in our backyard. I took my small old point and shoot camera with me since I didn't feel like packing up all of my good camera stuff. The mangroves out in the open bay look so sad. It's brown twigs as far as you can see. Hopefully, once the rainy season starts, the green part will start to grow out.

Sandhill crane family

I found a sandhill crane family digging around in the grass at Circle B Bar Reserve. They were walking around the picnic area and did not seem afraid of all the people that were there. They had one baby, called a colt. The colt must have been born sometime in late February or early March. They grow up fast. It's funny how the colt's beak is so bright orange. I'm not sure at what age it turns the dark black color. They looked so graceful and slowly walked around picking at the ground. The colt stayed very close to one of the parents, not sure if it's the dad or mom.

Flying things that aren't birds

I didn't realize there were so many different types of dragonflies. Wikipedia lists over 20 different ones in the Northern Hemisphere but I also read online that there over 150 in the United States. Right now the parks are full of dragonflies and butterflies. My backyard is as well. It's easier to get pictures of dragonflies than butterflies. Butterflies do not seem to sit still very long. Dragonflies tend to land on a twig and sit there for a minute or two. Since there seems to be a lack of different birds to take pictures of right now, the challenge is to get pictures of other flying things. I'm not going to even attempt to identify the above. I'd rather be outside than studying these guys online.