Nesting birds at Gatorland

Cattle egret gathering sticks for a nest.


Cattle egret counting her eggs.

Tricolored heron also counting her eggs.

Snowy egrets making a nest together.

It's a busy time for wild water birds at Gatorland. The alligator lake there is full of mangroves that make a great nesting place. The alligators keep the raccoons from getting to the nest so the birds are pretty safe there (unless a flightless baby falls out of the nest). The birds are very busy flying around with sticks and fish. They are still building nests there. Many of the nests had 3 -4 eggs on them. There was also a handful of nest that already had babies on them. I might have to make another trip there in June before nesting season dies down.

Pelicans at St. Petersburg Pier

These are just the beginnings of pelican pictures for the summer. They are such a fun bird to take pictures of. When it's really hot and all of the other birds have gone north for the summer these guys will be out diving (or begging) for fish all day. There's always a handful of pelicans hanging around the bait shop at the Pier in St. Pete. They sleep all over the pilings, railings and the top of the bait shop. In the morning they are usually pretty active flying around looking for fish. You can buy fish at the bait shop to feed them. They have a platform to stand on so you don't get attacked but it makes for great tourist photo opps.

Crescent Lake Park

Opsrey having an early lunch.

Blackbird found an already dead baby duck in the grass. He eventually flew off with it.


Bluejay

The park has a very large old banyan tree that is starting to die. They fenced it off and have been mulching it and giving it some type of fertilizer to nurse it back to health. Hopefully, with the warm weather back it will get better.

Crescent Lake Park is a small park in St. Petersburg. It's surrounded by houses and apartments so there are always tons of people there walking dogs and jogging. There's a playground, tennis courts and dog park. The interesting thing is that a handful of geese have made a permanent home there. I guess someone forgot to tell them to go north for the summer. There are also a few osprey flying around since the lake is full of fish. They have the usual songbirds as well. It's a great place for a morning stroll and not to far from downtown St. Pete.

Baby geese at Crescent Lake Park

This family was so cute that I had a hard time editing which pictures to post. I think the mom is a white chinese goose. There were nine babies when I saw them recently at Crescent Lake Park in St. Petersburg. There was a man feeding them who said they started with 10 babies. They stayed pretty close together and the parents were very aggressive at keeping people away. I took the above pictures with my 500mm lens. It's so much fun to be out taking pictures of all of the cute babies in the spring. Much more baby pictures to come.

Reddish egret at Fort Desoto

Reddish egrets are the Fred Astaire of birds. When fishing for food, they dance around in shallow water using the shadow of it's wings to reduce the glare on the water. They are very active and graceful when feeding. It's fun to watch them dancing around and then stabbing the fish. The above pictures are of a single egret that hangs out at the north beach marsh at Fort Desoto. I saw him there last summer and recently he has been back again. These were taken last weekend there. They are not very common to see in Florida so this guy has been photographed quite a bit.

Long billed curlew

He's back! The long billed curlew that was seen all last summer at Fort Desoto is back. No one knows where he went for the winter. He's a rare sight around central Florida. They are usually in the western and central part of the country. A few have been sighted spending winters in Florida but this guy stays here in the summer. Candlestick Park in San Fransisco was named after this little bird which is also commonly know as a Candlestick bird. They were found in abundance in the 50's at the point where the park was built but are now a rare sight there as well.

Baby owl at Fort Desoto

Baby great horned owl.


Big baby yellow eyes!


Baby in the nest with Mom sitting above hiding behind the pine needles.

Mom sitting close by.

The above baby is probably one of the most photographed babies in the Tampa Bay area. The great horned owl baby is sitting on a tiny nest near the North Beach at Fort Desoto Park. Just look for the tree with all of the photographers standing underneath looking up. The baby was very animated and closely watching a handful of white ibis feeding on the ground underneath the nest. He's almost the size of the parent so he'll be flying soon. I don't know if I'll make it back down to the park again before he is gone.