Gandy beach on my way home

Skimmers stretching and preening. Getting ready for bed.

Laughing gulls taking a bath.

Sandwich tern flyby.

Little plovers all hunkered down. This was taken far away. They were hiding behind the barricaded area.

I'm not sure what this is. I think it's a least sandpiper. There were a few there bathing right before dark.

Skimmers flying over the beach.

One of my last chances to stop by Gandy beach on my way home from work. Next week it will be dark when I leave work. I got there just before the sun went down behind the trees. The birds immediately went to work getting ready for bed. They were all bathing, preening or stretching.  Many of the birds were behind the concrete barricades that block the end of the beach. There used to be signs that say "No driving past this point." but now there are signs saying "No Trespassing." It's just a tiny little spot before the beach turns into rock and seawall. Hopefully that will keep people out and the birds can rest.

I hate it when the time changes. I'm sure most people do. Why does the traffic get so bad in the dark? Now my quick 25 minute drive home from work will become at least 45 minutes. And I don't get to see anything going on in the bay. At least in the summer if I"m stuck in traffic on the bridge I can watch the pelicans and osprey fly by and look for dolphins. Now all I can do is stare at the car in front of me. Oh well, mid March will come soon enough.

Rain on Gandy beach

Laughing gull taking a bath.

Least sandpiper taking a bath.

BIG and little.  Juvenile laughing gull on the left and least sandpiper on the right. I forget how small those sandpipers are until I see them next to a gull.

Least sandpiper walking around.

Dowitcher digging around for something.

Sandwich tern with a mouthful.

I stopped on the Gandy bridge beach on the way home from work hoping for some lightning pictures. The rain came but no lightning.

More shots from Gandy bridge beach

The tide was low and a handful of skimmers and laughing gulls were pretty far out away from the beach.

A great blue heron watching over the bay.

The utility tower from the other end of the beach. If you're flying into Tampa during the day it's always good to get a window seat. You look down over the water as the plane is landing.

I was so busy watching an osprey flying by that I didn't even notice a dolphin swimming close to shore. I caught him just as he headed back out of the bay.

A lonely juvenile night heron on the sea wall.

Gandy beach is a small beach before you cross the bridge to go into south Tampa. It's a bay beach, not on the gulf, and is across from a power plant. It's one of the few beaches in the Tampa bay area that you can drive on. Dogs are allowed so there are usually a handful of people with their dogs running around. The St. Petersburg Audubon was able to get the city to put up concrete barricades recently so that you can't drive on the end of the beach. This way the birds have a small sanctuary to rest in. The beach gets a lot of migratory shorebirds stopping over in the spring and fall and they need their rest. If you were a red knot and had just flown in from Chili or Argentina and were on your way up to Canada, you'd be pooped. You wouldn't want to be chased by cars, dogs or kids. So right when I get there I park and start to walk along the beach and I see this truck heading for the concrete barricades. I think "He's going to stop when he gets there and turn around." But no, the tide was so low that he drives his truck around the barricades. First he stopped and read one of the big signs that says "No entry! Vehicles prohibited." Then he drives around it. I don't know where he thought he was going. I guess he thought the beach continued on but it ends at the big red utility tower. When he drove back around I yelled at him and pointed to the sign. He ignored me and peeled across the sand and left.

Shorebirds and Seabirds on Gandy beach

A little sandwich tern flying in to hang with the bigger royal terns.

Three smaller black terns with royal terns. All of these black terns were at various stages of molting.

Juvenile skimmer. This is the first time I've seen a young skimmer outside of the skimmer colony at Redington Shores beach. There were a few of them on Gandy beach.

Bye, bye.

Black tern preening.

I stopped by Gandy beach on the way home from work. It's pretty close by. The sun was going down so there wasn't much activity going on. All of the birds were getting ready for bed. Most were already sleeping and the rest were bathing or preening. There were only a few black terns on the beach even though I've heard there had been hundreds of them there recently. I'm not sure how long they'll stay. They don't live here year round.  Another quiet night so I headed home.

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A rare black tern sighting

Royal and sandwich terns hanging out together.

Sandwich terns taking a bath.

Black tern

Black tern turning from breeding (all black color) to non-breeding color.

Another black tern that was in full non-breeding color.

Short video of terns taking a bath.

I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were a few black terns on the Gandy bridge beach. It's fairly rare to see them in the Tampa bay area. They only come through here for a short time in the summer. Since I work close to the bridge, I stopped over there on my way home from work on one of the nights were it wasn't pouring down rain. There were large amounts of terns on the beach (when a dog wasn't chase them off the beach). I could only find a few black terns mixed in with other terns but I didn't see any that were in full black breeding color. Most of them were just changing feathers. I'm going to keep looking for that all black tern though.

I attached a short video of some terns bathing. I always like watching them swimming around in the water.

A stop on Gandy Bridge beach.

Least tern.

Juvenile least tern.

Osprey with lunch. Made me hungry.

He decided he didn't want an audience. He was sitting right on Gandy bridge eating.

"Doesn't anyone want my gift?" said the lonely least tern.

On my drive home from Fort Desoto, I stopped along the Gandy bridge beach. All I found were a lot of least terns. That's about all that was there. There were a few cars parked on the beach and a couple of dogs running around so I'm sure only the bravest terns were there. I managed to find a juvenile least tern which was a first for me. As I was getting bored and ready to leave, an osprey flew over my head with a fish. He landed close by on a utility wire right on the main road. He ate a few bites then took off over the water.

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Sundown on Gandy Beach - Skywatch Friday

One last stop on the way home from work happened the week before the time changed. I stopped at the Gandy bridge beach because it is so close to work. It got dark fast. There were a lot of birds on the beach. Most were trying to sleep but there were a handful of people there and some had dogs. 

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Black skimmers flying away from a barking dog. This looks like a classic Florida boat to me.

Black skimmers coming back to the beach. He's looking at me like "where'd that dog go?"

There's a huge population of plovers on Gandy beach.

Black bellied plover's got an itch.

Oystercatcher couple. There's usually a handful of oystercatchers on Gandy beach but you have to look for them. Often they hide at the far end by the utility tower.

Another black bellied plover in non-breeding colors. In the winter his belly and head are black.

Sundown on Gandy beach

Sandwich tern taking a bath.

How many different types of shorebirds are on this beach?

Skimmer doing what he does - skimming for food.

Industrial strength great blue heron.

Cormorant condos.

I stopped by Gandy beach on the way home one day last week. I left work late so I barely had any time before it got dark. There were still a handful of people there. The reason the skimmers in the above picture were flying over my head was because there were 2 guys there on 3 wheeler dirt bikes. They thought it was fun to drive up to the shoreline and scare the birds away. As I was headed for the end of the beach where most of the birds were, they flew past me and drove through the shorebirds trying to go to sleep. They knew I was not happy. How would they like it if I came to their house and drove a dirt bike through at 6am and woke them up?

Otherwise, it was a nice night out but clouds moved in just as the sun was going down so no sunset shots on this trip.