Boyd Hill butterfly and birds - Skywatch Friday

Still a lot of butterflies around.

Pine warbler

Which one doesn't belong? That anhinga is telling the great egret to get off his statue.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge from far away. Yes, I took this right into the sun!

Large flock of ruddy turnstones. I don't think I've ever seen more than 2 or 3 together at a time.

It's still pretty warm down here. It would be nice if it would at least stay below 70 degrees for a while. My Saturday morning walk around Boyd Hill Nature Preserve warmed up fast. I had on a tshirt and pants but after 15 minutes I was wishing I had on a tank top and shorts. I'm such a native now. It's 70 outside and I think I have to wear a jacket. Boyd Hill was pretty quiet with birds so I headed down to the end of the street it's off of and found a small park with a boat ramp that faces the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Of course, by then it was after 11am so the sun was right in my eyes. There was nothing interesting there so I didn't stay long. 

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Birds and ducks at Circle B Bar Reserve

Blue wing teals swimming together.

Coot walking across the water.

I think this is a female blue wing teal coming in for a landing.

Glossy ibis up close. They usually stay pretty far away from the trail but this one was sitting right along the trail. Sometimes I'm so amazed at the colors of a bird. I love the beautiful pale pink perfectly curved beak, the hint of white around the eyes and the deep burgundy in the feathers.

Great egret flyby.

Then he goes for a fish.

Butterflies are still everywhere.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, I headed out to Circle B Bar reserve with my friend Pam and her hubby. We walked the trails for 3 hours and the above was all we found. There were tons of photographers there and everyone was complaining how slow it was in terms of unusual birds or ducks. And of course, still no sign of the bobcat that everyone is taking pictures of. But instead of a black Friday, we had yellow Friday. More on that to follow.

Our World Tuesday  

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Hubby's first trip to Circle B Bar Reserve

Great blue heron posing for us.

Snowy egret blowing in the wind.

Small alligator on the rocks giving me a big smile.

Eastern phoebe. I'm starting to see these everywhere.

Lots of butterflies at the park.

Hubby noticed the snake in the tree.

A couple of Sunday's ago the day started off dreary. Drizzle and wind. By noon it had cleared up and after watching tv all morning I jumped off the couch and said "I'm going to Circle B for an afternoon walk." Hubby said "I think I'll go with you." I said "What, you don't want to stay home and watch football and golf all day?" So off we went. The reserve is about 45 minutes from our house. It was a gorgeous day. Cool, mostly sunny and a little windy. On the way there I talked about all of the things we would see. I think he jinxed me. I talked about all of the big alligators we'd see (we only saw 2 tiny ones). I talked about looking for the baby limpkins (no sign of them). I talked about birds migrating through (almost none in sight). I talked about the eagles rebuilding their nest (no eagles). I said we had to keep a look out for the bobcat that everyone had been seeing (no bobcat). Oh well, at least we had a nice two hour walk. The highlight was the snake. And he was surprised at how many butterflies were there. They were flying everywhere. I think I might leave him home on my next trip.

Our World Tuesday 

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Wild things at the zoo

First thing I saw at the zoo was a red bellied woodpecker. It was right at opening and no one else was around. The trees were full of them. Later when I was leaving I noticed they were all gone.

The zoo was full of these yellow flowers, which were full of bees.

Another late bloomer.  The above baby moorhen was swimming around the gibbon exhibit.

More butterfly art.

Yes, that's a gibbon holding on to the wing of an ibis. I was standing there looking at the baby moorhen when I heard a screaming from a bird. I looked over and the gibbon had grabbed the ibis by the wing when the ibis had wandered to close to the edge. I guess the gibbon thought it would be fun to play with. It was the mother gibbon who grabbed it. The baby gibbon was standing to the left of her.

The ibis started to peck at the gibbon with it's beak. The gibbon let go and was holding a handful of white feathers. I was about ready to jump in the pool to save the ibis (I'm sure the zoo would have loved that).

The captured ibis flew over to the wall once it was released. It seemed to be okay, just missing a few feathers.

On a recent weekend I was on call for work and needed to stay close to home. Since the zoo is only 15 minutes away I ran in for an hour. I hadn't been in several months. The last time I was there the baby spoonbills had left the nest and all I saw were a bunch of empty nests over the alligator exhibit. They won't be back until January or February. It was a pretty quiet morning. The biggest excitement was when the gibbon grabbed the ibis. Everyone was watching. I didn't have the exposure correct on those pictures. I was focusing on the baby moorhen which was swimming in the shadows but when I heard the screaming from the bird I looked over and snapped a couple of pictures really quickly.  The manatee hospital had two newly injured manatees that had arrived. Both were injured from boat strikes. They were in the back pool being fed.

Chesnut park

That's a big pine cone he's got.

Female cardinal staring at me.

Carolina wren looking up in the trees.

This is either a Louisiana waterthrush or a northern waterthrush. They are so similar. I'd have to see them side by side to compare.  It was a first one for me.

Butterfly art.

Still pretty quiet in the parks a few weeks ago. It's hard to get out and find different things when I've only got Saturday mornings to look right now. Things have been pretty busy with work and a trip to South Dakota (more on that later). I took the above on a hot Labor Day weekend Saturday morning.  But things are looking up. Migration is happening now (although work is keeping me from a most of it) and soon things will cool off a bit. 

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Butterflies, bees and a bird.

Big lesson learned when I arrived at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. I get to the park and pull out my camera and immediately want to take the picture of the above Carolina wren that was close to the parking lot. I knew he wouldn't sit there long. Yes, I drove to the park with my air conditioning blasting. Yes, my lens fogged up. I had my cleaning cloth with me in my backpack and tried to wipe off the fog but it just kept fogging up. Now, while it's still so hot and humid, I drive with the windows rolled down to the park. And to top it all off this was the only bird I saw worth taking a picture of. It was so hot and fall migration had not started yet. So I settled for a few bee and butterfly pictures.

Little critters at Sawgrass Lake Park

Green heron. One of the few birds I saw there.

Looking down the river from the end of the boardwalk.

Dragonfly season is in full swing.

Butterfly. (or moth?)

Another butterfly.

I stopped by Sawgrass Lake Park after work a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty close to work. It's starting to get hot and muggy. There weren't a lot of birds there. This park is usually more of a miss than hit when it comes to birds. I almost always see green herons and anhingas but that's about all. Of course, I usually only go after work and there might be a different crowd there in the morning. I can usually find good critters there though.  I don't know my butterfly species at all. I barely know the bird ones so it will be a while before I start to learn them. They are pretty though, when they sit still. While I was there I got bitten several times by big brown flies. I had a good coat of Off on and still got bit. Those biting flies are worse than mosquitoes. The bites itched for days. No amount of hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion helped. If anyone has a great remedy, please let me know.



Spring at Boyd Hill Nature Park

Lily pads are blooming and bees are buzzing.

Cormorants resting near the trail.

Anhinga is trying to hide under the statue. (Downtown St. Pete in the background.)

Butterflies are everywhere.

Big tooth giving me a grin. This guy was laying right under the boardwalk.  Since the water was so high he had traveled far into the swamp.

Lots of spring nature happening at Boyd Hill Nature Park in St. Petersburg. Tons of people are coming out to see the grooved bill ani that is still there but there's so much more to see at the park. This was the only alligator I saw. I think since the water was so high most of them were hiding. The place was full of butterflies and dragonflies. There were osprey flying around. They probably have nests somewhere in the park. It's a nice walk when it gets hot because the front trail closest to the lake is almost all shaded and you get the breeze over the water. I'll be heading there a lot this summer.

Non bird things at Circle B Bar Reserve - My World Tuesday

I was disappointed in the alligator count during my recent visit. I only saw this small one. I had heard a really big one had been sitting on the trail recently but I never saw it. It might have still been too hot for them to come out of the water.

I found these tiny frogs sitting on a small palm tree right on the trail.  This frog was smaller than my thumb.

This frog was on the same tree as the above but was a little greener and bigger. I'm thinking he's an older version of the one above? They both have the white stripe down their sides.

There were a lot of these spiders everywhere at the park. Since there hasn't been any rain for a while there were big spider webs all along the trail. They were spread out across the trail just over my head. It was a little creepy walking underneath them.

Still a lot of butterflies at the park. This one looks like his wing has had a rough time.

There are lots of other animals at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland besides birds. Big spiders were everywhere. I just tried to pay attention where I was walking around trees so I wouldn't walk into any webs. Besides lots of the above, there are wild hogs, otters and coyotes. All of which I have not seen there yet. I hear the wild hogs come out at dusk so I won't be hanging around there after dark. There's also the usual raccoons and snakes as well but I have seen those there.

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