Skywatch Friday - Birds at Sand Key Park

A recent trip to Sand Key Park shows just how beautiful the beaches are in the Tampa Bay area. It was suppose to be rainy but hubby and I went anyway just to get out of the house and walk around. When we got there the sun came out and was beautiful most of the time we were there. The above laughing gulls were sitting on a ridge in the sand that really showed off the blue sky and water.



For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

Laughing gull had an itch.

Osprey was flying high overhead.

Gull in flight.

Great blue heron was hiding in trees by the big bridge. I think I woke him up. He was a little wind blown.

Willet was coughing up something. Probably a piece of fish.

There's always a lot of snowy egrets hanging around the fishing piers at Sand Key.

Neighborhood visitors over Labor Day weekend.

This immature blue heron was walking around next to our dock at low tide. He should turn all blue by his next molt.

Saturday I walked out into our screened in porch to water some plants and looked up and saw the above juvenile ibis staring at me from our fence. I went back inside and took this from the dining room window.

Sunday afternoon it was drizzling. I looked out the window and saw a few ducks heading down the channel for our dock. This is the first time I've seen a white duck in our channel. I looked it up and it's a type of mallard, so it's the same as the brown ducks that are with it. I ran out to the dock and snapped a few pictures in the rain.

When I went outside in the rain to take pictures of the white duck I saw the above night heron sitting on our dock. I took this picture from the door of the screened in porch. He must be young because his yellow crown was not quite yellow yet.

This girl is a temporary resident who is living in our screened in porch. I think the balls on the left have baby spiders inside. I need to sweep this spider outside or I might be having tons of spiders living in my porch soon.

Another resident, this was taken on my window sill. We have several frogs living in our shutters. I hadn't seen any in a while but Friday night he was sitting there when we got home from dinner so I ran in and got my camera.

So many birds on the causeway.

Willet taking a stroll on the causeway.


Lone oystercatcher hanging out with a few laughing gull friends.

Dowitchers trying to sleep. It was getting dark.

There have been lots of plovers around lately.

Last week I stopped off on the Courtney Campbell Causeway on the way home from work to see what kind of birds are around. Pinellasbirds.com has been reporting lots of shorebirds moving through the area. There were a handful of shorebirds along the causeway but not tons that had been there the week before. We're very fortunate in our little section of the gulf. I've been following Drew Wheelan's blog, http://birding.typepad.com/gulf/ about the Gulf Coast Oil Crisis and I wish there was some way we could direct all of the migrating birds here. I guess they wouldn't be able to read big signs that say "All birds fly east to Tampa". It makes it even more important that we protect the ones that visit or live here.

As usual, there was an osprey hanging out on a lamppost. It was starting to sprinkle as I was leaving so I quickly stopped my car on the access road and took this picture out the window.

Florida foliage at the Pier.

On our walk around the park at the Pier I noticed how pretty all of the flowers looked for August. I guess all of the rain has helped perk up the overheated foliage. The purple flower had a bee trying to get some pollen. He looked stuck but I'm sure he was able to get out. The bottom picture was some type of fruit hanging on a palm tree. I would assume it's not edible but the orange and green on the tree looked pretty.

Pelican taking a bath at the Pier.

We were walking back to our car from the pier and saw this pretty pelican swimming around in the water. All of a sudden it started flapping it's wings and seemed to be taking a bath. It must be a young pelican based on the pale color and lack of any wear and tear on it.

St Pete Pier - Skywatch Friday

The above picture was taken on top of the the soon-to-be torn down St. Petersburg Pier. It's over 30 years old and falling apart so the city recently voted to tear it down. No word on what will replace it yet. A storm was moving in over the oh-so-small downtown St. Pete. A few of those tall buildings are new condos that are probably more than half empty. It's fun to go hang out at the St. Pete Pier. There are lots of picture taking opportunities. I grew up visiting it as a kid with my family so I'll miss it when it's gone.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

The inverted building at the end of the pier.

There's an outdoor restaurant on the top of the building so there's always grackles and cowbirds hanging around.

There's always lots of activity around the pier. This morning there was a sailboat class for kids.

The yacht basin has a few nice boats in it. There are usually dolphins and manatees swimming around in it but I did not see any this morning.

Baby squirrel

My friend Carrie and I were walking around the park near the St. Petersburg Pier and noticed something squirming under some overgrown mangrove trees. It looked like a baby squirrel had fallen out of the tree. It still had it's eyes closed but was moving around pretty good. There were several adult squirrels running around close to it. We decided to leave it alone and walked around for a while. We came back a little later and it was gone. We think the parents must have hauled it back in trees. There weren't any other animals around that could have gotten it. The parents were really watching us and came down close to the ground. Hopefully, the little squirrel was okay. I've never seen a baby before.