Osprey with a fish in the backyard.

Osprey on my neighbor's dock with a fish.

A blue heron lands on the same dock as the osprey.

Then I notice the blue heron is on the top of the boat lift with the osprey. The osprey doesn't seem to mind. He keeps eating his fish.

Eventually the osprey gives the blue heron his evil eye look and the blue heron flies off.

Right before dark, I see a great blue heron on my dock. Looking at something interesting. Maybe a fish?

Scenes from my bedroom window.

  Our World Tuesday

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Kapok Park after work

Little blue heron standing on the boardwalk rail. He didn't want to move. I finally walked around him.

"Yea! The kingfishers are back. Still haven't seen the one in my neighborhood yet but it's still early. Not a great shot because they are really skittish here.

Boring ole blue jay watching me.

Hawk flyby.

My first alligator sighting at this park.

Cute caterpillar.

Another walk around Kapok Park after work. It's getting dark earlier so I only had a little over an hour before the sun went down behind the trees. I was hoping to see the red tailed hawk again but could only find a red-shouldered hawk soaring overhead. Two kids on skateboards asked me if I had seen the alligator swimming in the middle of the lake. I'm thinking to myself  "In the 3 years I've been coming here I've never seen an alligator." I said to them "No, I haven't." They were so excited to point him out as he swam right towards the dock. It's amazing how alligators are so mesmerizing to kids. I don't know how long he's been in the lake. I always thought the baby duck count never seems to go down here like at other lakes. Maybe he's fairly new.

   Camera Critters

Almost night in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

A Saturday night in the backyard. The sun was going down behind the palm tree.

More sunset.

Blue heron on my neighbor's dock. The sun was almost down and I tried to use my flash to get better light but I didn't have much reach.

My shutter frog came out a little early. I usually only see him after it's dark.

A lizard on a plant in my screened in porch. They sneak in under the screened door but we have to make sure they don't get in the house.

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Birds and dragonflies at Kapok Park

Female anhinga stretching out. I love it when they do this. I guess that's why they are also called the "snakebird". Anhinga is just a brazilian word for snake bird.

Juvenile blue heron's got a scratch. It's got just a little bit of white feathers left. Soon it will be all blue and look like the one below.

Adult blue heron. It could be the parent of the one above.

"Just me and my shadow." sings the dragonfly.

Pretty red one.

I am not a dragonfly expert. Most of the time they all look alike to me. There are hundreds of different species and my head would explode trying to learn them, work full time and take pictures of birds. I admire people who can learn them all. But they are so pretty. And when there's not a lot of birds around in the hottest months of the year, there's tons of dragonflies to try and take pictures of. I took another trip to Kapok Park after work recently. It's a challenge to find unusual birds this time of year. All of the babies have grown up and it's still a little too early for fall migration. I'm not sure if that juvenile blue heron is the same one I keep seeing there. I've only seen one. His feathers keep getting bluer and bluer each time I'm there. Soon I won't be able to tell him apart from the other adults.

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Kapok Park after work

Red winged blackbird yelling at me to get off his boardwalk.

Juvenile blue heron. He must be getting close to hitting that one year mark. Blue herons are born all white then over the course of their first year they change to blue.

Red bellied woodpecker getting a snack.

I was leaving and it was just starting to get dark. There's a deep ditch close by the small parking area. I heard the limpkin calling before I saw him. It was dark down in the ditch so I turned my flash on and took the below picture. I realized the ditch was full of snails. There were 3 limpkins in the ditch having a feast. This was right before the heavy rains started so the water in the ditch was pretty low.

One of the million dragonfly pictures that I will take. When birding gets slow in the heat of the summer I start shooting dragonflies.

One of the normal sights I see on my drive home. Osprey sitting on the light post. A couple of weekends ago, hubby and I were on our way back from the beach and counted 28 osprey sitting on lightposts on the big bridge across the Tampa bay. That broke the record of 22 from several summers ago.

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Last trip to the zoo for a while

Baby mallards swimming around the hyenna exhibit.

 

More pictures of the blue heron family.

Twin blue herons.

Lizard

Common ground dove.

I packed up my camera stuff and head out to the zoo for one last look at the baby spoonbills before they leave the nest. At this point they should be about 6 weeks old. I went straight to the nest and was in for a big letdown. They were already gone. The nest was empty. I guess they start taking off and wandering around at that point. There were only a few late blue heron babies hanging around. Now the alligator exhibit is just a boring water hole full of alligators. I was glad I made the effort to get there for 4 weekends in a row to see the spoonbills growing up. I did find an adult spoonbill sleeping high up in a tree close by. It was still a productive trip. I spent an hour walking around getting some exercise before the heat got to me. I'll probably not be back until late fall, maybe around November. It's just too hot now.

Wild stuff at the zoo

Blue jay in the tree.

Cool grasshopper. The zoo is full of them.

Adult blue heron feeding baby that's not so little anymore.

Baby blue heron yelling for mom to go get more food.

Baby blue heron profile. It'll be leaving the nest soon.

One of the last baby moorhens to be born. There might still be a few stragglers.

On my trip to the zoo to see the spoonbills, I walked around and found a few interesting things. The zoo is full of grasshoppers right now. Some of them have a lot of color. The last of the baby blue herons are getting big. Soon the alligator exhibit will only have alligators in it. How boring. My plan is to check on the baby spoonbills one more time before they take off.  I'm not sure how old they get before they leave the nest. Hopefully, I'll have another week to catch them.

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Baby hawks and the usual birds at Circle B.

Limpkin eating a snail on Alligator Alley trail.

This looks like an immature red shouldered hawk.

Immature little blue heron turning blue.

Two of the smaller baby red shouldered hawks.

The older sibling.

My first hawk babies were seen at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. A red shouldered hawk couple had built a nest behind the barred owl's nest. The barred owl babies had flown the coupe when I got there but a nice surprise was behind the nest. I could hear the baby hawks screaming. The birds were very far away across a river so the above pictures are highly cropped. Things are starting to slow down at the reserve. It's getting hot there and all of the migrate birds are almost gone or will be gone soon. All of the babies are growing up fast. I'm going to try and head out there one more time before the summer heat sets in. Then it's more trips to the coast where at least you get a sea breeze.

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