Birds of Davis Islands

Female grackle sitting on an abandoned boat.

The usual willets are always hanging out around the jetty.

The oystercatchers were pretty skittish. They would not let me get too close.

Spotted sandpiper.

A tern sitting on some type of buoy or anchor.

Nothing unusual was found on my trip to the Davis Islands yacht basin. Just the boring ole oystercatchers, willets and terns. It's still too hot to see anything good but soon the migrating birds will be coming through in bigger numbers and before you know it the eagles will back. I'm counting down the days for when it's no longer hot and the fun winter birds are here. It's only about 100 more days, give or take 10.

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Hanging with the shrikes

I see the first shrike of the day on a wooden bench.

Then I realize there's a few more shrikes in the trees. I sat on a picnic table under the tree and was watching them. One flies onto the picnic table with a worm in it's mouth. It seemed to be showing me his catch. I had to get up and back up since he was to close to get a picture.

I spotted another one with a worm on the ground.

I finally started to leave and stopped along the seawall to take a picture of the jellyfish. This little guy flies down and sits right next to me. Was he trying to tell me something? He then flew over to the nearby tree. I followed him and took the below picture.

On my recent trip to Davis Islands, I must have seen at least 10 loggerhead shrikes. The most I've ever seen together at one time is 3. They were everywhere in the trees that run along the sea wall. They acted like they were used to having people around and got pretty close to me. They are tiny songbirds that hunt their prey like a hawk. I've always had a hard time getting decent pictures of the face with the black mask trying to hide their eyes. I was happy the sun was out and gave off good light that morning. I did use my flash on the one with the worm since he was sitting under the tree in the shade.

Sights of Davis Islands - Skywatch Friday

A view from the yacht basin.

Jellyfish were floating along the top of the water along the basin. This is the first time I've seen them there.

Nice to be paddling and choking on that air.

A fun game of frisbee football going on.

Stingray floating by.

A view of downtown Tampa from Davis Islands. I was standing next to the dog beach.

I hadn't been over to Davis Islands to walk around for a while. I thought maybe there would be a breeze along the water. I was wrong again. Even in the early morning heat there were tons of people everywhere. The small dog beach was full. There was a paddleboarding lesson going on. Lots of people running, walking and biking. The sun was out in full force. No clouds until later on. I managed to find a few birds hanging around. More on those later.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday

Cold windy day

Osprey flapping in the wind.

Seagulls resting on a quiet dock.

Birds feeding around a fire hydrant on Davis Islands.

You can almost always find oystercatchers around Davis Islands.


Willet looking at himself.

Bad hair day.

Brett & I decided to brave the cold (yes, here it's cold at 55 degrees) and wind late Sunday afternoon and get some excercise walking around Davis Islands by the airport. A huge blanket of clouds hid the sun right after we got there so it got even colder. We lasted about an hour. There were still a handfull of birds around. I figured they would all head for Miami. I would have if I could fly off anywhere at anytime.

Davis Islands at sunset.

Semipalmated plover on the beach near Davis Islands Yacht Club.

Night heron prowling for food before sundown.


Oystercatcher flying away before dark.

Osprey sitting on a light pole looking in the water for dinner.

With a perfect sunset like this how could anyone stay indoors, other than the fact that it was 92 degrees at 7pm on Sunday. A few birds were out getting that last minute dinner in before it got dark. I walked around the jetti at the end of the airport runway to the Davis Island Yacht Club. Considering there were lots of people around walking dogs, riding bikes and hanging out there were a handfull of birds around. The oystercatchers are the most skittish. If they see someone coming from miles away they will take off. The other birds just took all the people in stride. Soon the weather will be cooling off a little bit and there will be tons of people there on the weekends.

American Oystercatchers

This week I went to a presentation on american oystercatchers in the Tampa Bay estuary put on by the Clearwater Audubon Society with help from the Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuary Program. These birds are a "species of special concern" by the Audubon Society. The Tampa Bay area has over 18% of the oystercatcher pairs in the entire state of Florida. Oystercatchers mate for life (like penguins). They nest on beaches and there aren't many of those left that are not being trampled on by people. There are several protected islands in the Hillsborough bay that are off limits to people for these birds to nest on with big signs that explain why you cannot tresspass on these islands. Boaters still land on these islands and spend time playing on them even with their pets. The oystercatchers are declining due to these types of behaviours.

What can you do? Stay out of protected areas. Don't let your dogs run unleashed on beaches. Keep pets off beaches where they don't belong. Stay far away from bird nests and eggs on the beach. If the oystercatcher parent is scared away from the nest the eggs could cook in the hot sun in less than 20 minutes. The eggs need the shade the parent provides.

A year ago I never really noticed these birds. At first glance I thought it was another skimmer. They are so rare to see. They are very skittish and will fly away quickly. It's hard to get good pictures of them, they have to be cropped up closely. Now I am always looking for them.

Davis Islands birds

Blue heron with a fish. I was sitting on a rock watching him and he came close up to me as if to say "See what I have?" before swallowing it.

Willet keeping an eye on me.


Green heron stalking the beach on Davis Islands.

Sunday was a sun day! Brett and I went over to spend the morning at Davis Islands. He rode his bike while I walked around by the airport and the yacht club taking pictures. Lots of people out riding bikes and walking their dogs. I found a few birds looking for food around the jetty. The little blue heron did not seem to be bothered by me sitting on the rocks watching him. He ate at least 3 fish in just a few minutes. There were all kinds of birds out: ruddys, egrets, green herons, blue herons, snowy egrets and several different shorebirds. The only disappointment of the morning was there were no dolphins in sight.

Starting out

I spend most of my weekends out in a park or the beach in the Tampa Bay area taking pictures of the wildlife or anything interesting I see. I bought my Nikon D60 camera last October and have been slowly learning how to use it. Books have been great. I have the Nikon D60 for Dummies (much more information than the useless manual the camera came with) and David Busch's Nikon D60 photography. I plan to take several classes in the next coming months. I love Flickr as well.

This past weekend I spent some time on Davis Islands walking around the area by the airport and Davis Islands yacht club. There are so many birds there to see. There are always dolphin sightings around that area as well.

The hubby came with me and rode his bike around while I was taking pictures. It was hot but beautiful.

Pictures are of Oystercatcher with a ruddy turnstone and a blue heron. Lots of shorebirds on the jetti this weekend.