Travels To The Edge roadtrip - Skywatch Friday

My trip began this past Friday night. I left work and picked up my husband in Lakeland and we headed across the state on Highway 60. It's a two lane road of cow pastures. Along the way we saw 2 kingfishers, a hawk, tons of osprey, 2 bald eagles flying along side of the road, 3 different sandhill crane families, horses, cows and a handful of road kill. Oh, and lots of vultures. We were headed to West Palm Beach. Hubby had wanted to go visit his aunt and cousin and I found an all day photography seminar happening there on Saturday so off we went. The Florida turnpike has these big electrical poles running along side of it for a while.  They looked cool at first but they went on forever.


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

 
One of my favorite shows on tv is Travels To The Edge which runs on PBS. Above is Art Wolf, who is the star of the show. He is a nature/travel photographer that travels to exotic locations and talks about taking pictures there.  He had an all day seminar in West Palm Beach so I had to go. He talked about inspiration, composition, difference between an okay picture and a great picture, etc. It was a great seminar and his pictures are amazing.  

Art's website -  http://www.artwolfe.com/

The trip back to Tampa looked like the above most of the way home. Small old buildings on a two lane road that forks into nowhere. It was fun to see old Florida though. On the way home we saw 2 eagles sitting in a tree close to the road. Hubby turned around and pulled off the side of the road so I could take the below pictures. It was almost dark and I only had my small point and shoot camera with me. Below is what happens when you try to zoom in too much on one of those. Too much grain and noise in the picture. It was so great to see them I had to post these anyway.

Early birds at the North Beach Marsh

Oystercatchers trying to sleep.

 

Marbled godwits trying to sleep.

Another "willet scratching" shot. These guys seem to do this a lot.

Snowy egret hanging on.

 

Little sanderlings looking for food.

Actually it wasn't that early. It was just before noon a couple of weeks ago at Fort Desoto. I was hoping to catch all of the shore birds doing something cute or eating but most of them were just trying to sleep.  You can always find sanderlings running along the beach looking for food. They dig their little beaks into the sand. I'm not sure what they are finding. I never do see them actually eat anything. They run really fast on those little legs. Since it was a quiet day I grabbed lunch and the beach chair and sat down to read for a while.

My World Tuesday - Birds at the North Beach sanctuary & a crab too.

Above is what I see when I walk out to the beach from the parking lot of the north beach sanctuary at Fort Desoto. The sanctuary is a large part of the beach that is roped off so only the birds can hang out in that spot. This gives them a place to stop over and rest during migration and a place to hide from the tourist's kid chasing after them. The lighthouse is on another island, Egmont Key, close by. Now that the summer storms have gone, it's absolutely gorgeous there.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!   http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/.

A mixture of birds flying around. I'm not sure what spooked them but they all just started flying around in circles. 

There's tons of space roped off but they all seem to huddle together. Above is a small spot of the huddle. Skimmers, terns and gulls are the most common in the group.

The above ruddy turnstone had wandered outside the roped area.

Great blue heron flying by.

The beach was full of these tiny crabs.

Little critters at Largo Botanical Gardens

You can always find lots of bugs and little flying things at the Botanical Gardens. It was hot so there were lots of them out. I walked over to a little lily pond and thought "It would be so cute if there were frogs in here". And then I noticed the tiny frog sitting right there looking at me. He was on the other side and I took the above quick. When I started to walk around the little pond to get closer he jumped under the water.

Below is a beautyberry bush. I told my hubby that we need to plant these in the backyard. They attract butterflies. Eventually we'll get around to it. The last picture was taken from one of the bridges that goes over the river that runs through the gardens. On one end the river has started to become overgrown.

Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier -Skywatch Friday

A couple of weeks ago I was on my way back from Sarasota and decided to stop by the south side Sunshine Skyway fishing pier. It's the old Sunshine Skyway bridge that was hit by a barge over 30 years ago and was permanently damaged. They built a new bridge (in the background) but left most of the old bridge up for a fishing pier. I got the discounted $3 picture taking rate instead of the $5 fishing rate. I parked at the entrance of the bridge and walked all the way to the end. It took me about an hour to the end (stopping to take tons of pictures on the way). It was a Monday so it was not very crowded and people seemed to be very relaxed, pointing out the dolphins and stingrays they had seen. One lady was telling me about all the sharks you see there but I didn't see any while I was there. I will definitely plan another trip here soon.

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

Lots of great and snowy egrets hanging out on the fishing pier.

Great egret flying by.

These were the only 2 ruddy turnstones on the bridge.

Not as many pelican as I thought there would be. Maybe because on a Monday there aren't as many fishermen.

I caught this manatee going back under the water. It was weird seeing a manatee in the middle of the bay. He was a big one.

Birds at Largo Botanical Gardens

A flash of gray goes by me. It's a tufted titmouse making a quick stop on a tree.

I'm starting to see cardinals everywhere.

Red bellied woodpecker.

Blue grey gnatcatcher.  This has to be the tiniest bird there.

This woodpecker looked slightly different than the first one. It was smaller and did not have the red on it's head. It could be a different woodpecker or an immature red bellied, although his beak looks different as well. I searched through the over 200 different species of woodpeckers and decided my head would explode before guessing this one.

A great egret doing his duty. Yes, the whole world is a toilet.

I made a recent stop to the Florida Botanical Gardens (in Largo). The morning started out cloudy and I thought I would get rained out but later the sun came out (and so did the mosquitoes and humidity). There was a good variety of birds there but I did not find any of the little migrating birds such as warblers. I also did not see a single alligator although I know there are several there. I think it's still warm and they are hiding in the water. 

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.