Duck, Duck, Frog

It's that time of the year again. Baby ducks swimming by our dock!  This one had 10 babies. There were 2 females so it could have been 2 families hanging out together. It was late last weekend when the sun was just going down in the channel when I saw them. I struggled to get some decent pictures with the low light in the channel. The 2nd and 3rd picture I used the flash to get some extra light.  Then I saw some other ducks down at the end of the channel with the sun hitting on the water right before it went down in the trees.  As I was going back in the house I noticed the frog peaking out of our shutter.



Pretty pelicans at Fort Desoto - Skywatch Friday

Some people think the scrub jay should be the state bird for Florida instead of the mockingbird. I think it should be the brown pelican. What a pretty face this one has. The above pelican was watching me take it's picture at the fishing pier at Fort Desoto.  He has just enough pink around the eyes and beige on the top of his head. He also has a green tint on his pouch that I've never really noticed on pelicans before. He sat there for a while then flew into the water. After a few minutes he was joined by a friend. There weren't a lot of pelicans at the pier that day. Maybe the fish weren't biting.

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Bald eagle family at Honeymoon Island

Parent sitting in a nearby tree.

I don't know what it was watching.

One of the babies standing on the nest.

One baby was trying to talk to the other one (who is hiding behind the pine needles).

The other baby did not move from this spot.

This is probably  my last check on the eagle family at Honeymoon Island. Both babies seem to be doing fine and they are probably flying by now. This was taken two weeks ago. The nest is closed off by more than 500 feet (which is the legal limit on public land). It's probably more like 800 feet. This family was far away and the pictures are extremely cropped. During my visit, one of the parents flew into a tree that was closer to the trail. It sat there for a few minutes and was watching something. Eventually it flew off into the distance. I do want to go back to check on the osprey nests in the next couple of weeks but by then the eagles will probably be gone.  Oh well, until next year!

Birds and dolphins at the Fort Desoto fishing pier.

Snowy egrets on one of the roofs of the fishing pier. It was a windy day.

Nice pose.

White ibis flying by.

Dolphin pod swimming by.

More dolphins.

Neat looking ship passing by the fishing pier.

Another sunny Sunday afternoon spent at Fort Desoto. It was very windy and cool. There won't be many days like this left before it gets miserable hot. I saw a lot of dolphins but weirdly they were all swimming far away from the pier. Usually they swim around and underneath the pier. I guess it's better that way. Sometimes the dolphins go after the fish caught on the fishing poles. The dolphin tries to swim away with the fish and ends up with a hook in his mouth or stomach. The fishermen are always mad because they've lost a hook. I always want to say "How would like to spend your short life with fishing hooks in YOUR stomach?" but I don't. I just walk away and shake my head. 

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Little birds at Chesnut Park

Pied grebe looking back at me.

Male cardinal in the tree.

Female cardinal eating something on the ground.

Gray catbird. I've been seeing these everywhere lately.

Cutest tufted titmouse.

Another titmouse.

Lots of little birds at Chesnut Park recently. I didn't see any rare migrants. Only the usual above. I walked along the boardwalk at the boat ramp and hardly saw anything. Nothing but coots and moorhens in the water. Then I hit the nature trail. I found all of the above on the nature trail.  Later I stopped by the picnic area to walk along the water to see if there were any water birds around. When I headed toward the lake I walked into a wall of gnats. At first I panicked because I thought they were mosquitoes which seemed to just be coming out. When I realized they weren't biting I thought "Okay, annoying but at least no bites." Boy, where they annoying. I was covered in them within minutes. I had to cover my nose and mouth to breath. I decided it wasn't worth it and left. I still got in a two hour walk but was hoping for three. I went home instead and did much needed chores.

A strange family - Mama swan and baby goose

I'm not quite sure of the story behind this family.  At Lake Morton there's an adult black swan who is taking care of a baby goose. The swan follows the baby around and stays really close. She treats it as if it were her own baby. I don't know if the geese parents abandoned the baby or somehow eggs got mixed up. There's a lot of both swans and geese at the lake. I had seen a picture of the baby on a fellow flickr's stream  Mike's picture and thought I'd stop by the lake and see if I could find it. Sure enough, wandering around the crowd of people feeding the wildlife was the baby goose and mom swan. They made a cute family.

Bald eagle family at the cemetery - Skywatch Friday

One of the parents in the tree.

Baby looking around.

Stretching it's wings.

One of the babies.

Trying to scratch.

Recently I stopped by the cemetery in St. Petersburg on my way home from a day at the beach to check on the baby eagles.. It was way too sunny out to be taking pictures in the middle of the afternoon but hey, I was in neighborhood and couldn't pass up a peek at how the babies are doing. So, most of these pictures were taken right into the sun since the baby was facing that way. Baby eagles take their first flight between the ages of 10 and 13 weeks.  Approximately 40% of young eagles do not survive their first flight. I guess they crash into something or don't make it back to the nest.  After their first flight, they will spend 4 to 5 more weeks taking short flights around the nest before they are gone for good. The babies won't get that white head until they are around 5 years old. I'm not sure when these babies were born. Maybe mid to late January so they should be flying by now.  Hopefully, I can catch them again before they are gone for good.

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