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.

Chesnut Park

Alligator hiding in the reeds close to the edge of the lake.

I was standing on a dock at the lake and saw this alligator go by a fishing boat. The boat had been sitting out in the middle of the lake for a while. The guys were probably half asleep (I would have been). The alligator kept on going by the boat. There's always people skiing in this lake. Makes you wonder whether they are brave or just stupid.

I found about 8 different bunnies around the playground area. They look different from the usual wild brown bunnies I see at parks. These look like someone had them as pets and let them go in the park.

Grackle looking around.

Carolina wren sitting on the boardwalk.

Cute squirrel. Is it me or does there seem to be a huge population explosion of squirrels lately in the Tampa bay area?  There seems to be tons of them everywhere. Are the hawks not keeping up? Sometimes in my backyard I can count 3 or 4 wandering around. We don't have feeders in our yard (no cats or dogs either which might explain why they hang out in our yard).

It was a quiet morning at Chesnut Park in north Pinellas county a couple of weekends ago. It was one of the first really hot humid weekends. Not much but me and mosquitoes (and the usual alligators). I managed to find a few birds but nothing exciting. This was my first trip there that I didn't see any woodpeckers. I usually see pileated woodpeckers somewhere along the Peggy Park trail. I didn't even hear them. On top of tons of squirrels everywhere, there were also a lot of rabbits. I saw several wild brown rabbits but also saw a big group of black ones and cream ones. Someone must have dropped them off after Easter. They let me get pretty close so they are used to people. If they get to close to the water's edge, they're going to end up being alligator food. Oh well, circle of life, etc.

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More wild birds at the zoo

Roseate spoonbill scratching.

Spoonbill sitting on the nest.

She's crying "It's your turn to sit on these hard sticks."

Carolina wren. I don't see these too often here.

Great egret flying by.

Just a few more pictures from my last recent trip to Lowry Park zoo.  I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on seeing spoonbill babies. I'm going to stop by there every weekend to check on them. It's only 10-12 minutes away and I have a membership so I may just stop in and run back to the rookery to see if any babies are present. Although, I sometimes get distracted by other cute animals.

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