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.

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Big Gulp!

"Oh no, here comes a car. She'd better not steal my fish."

"If I flip it just right, it should go down pretty easy."

"I wonder if she has any hot sauce."

"No? Well, here goes another bland fish meal."

"I'm gonna have heartburn for a week."

I was leaving Boyd Hill Nature Park in south St. Petersburg after a two hour walk and decided to drive over to the other side of the lake where it looked like there was a park there. It was mostly just a boat ramp with lots of parking. There wasn’t much there but lots of coots and cormorants. I was thinking to myself “I’ll just drive through the parking lot and leave.” As I pass the boat ramp I see a great blue heron in the water facing the lake. All of sudden he turned around with a big fish in his mouth. I pulled up right in front of him but was afraid if I got out of my car it would spook him and he would fly off. So all of the above were taken while sitting in my car. It took him a few minutes to swallow that big fish. I think he was waiting for it to stop flopping around in his mouth. After his big gulp, he wandered back into the water and I drove off heading for home and lunch.

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.

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Birds at the St. Pete Yacht Club

Pelican in front of the pier.

Which one doesn't belong? There's a small ruddy turnstone 3rd from the left. I guess he figured there was safety in all of those laughing gulls.

At the boat ramp. Some guys dumped their bait fish in the parking lot before driving off.

Laughing gulls flying in for the bait fish fest.

You can usually find green herons around marinas. We have several that hang around in the channels by my house.

Great blue heron posing.

I have a friend who has a key to get into the gate at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club so an after work photo walk got scheduled pretty quick. We headed down there right after work and had about an hour and a half before it got dark. The docks there sit across the lagoon from the St. Pete Pier (in the first picture). It was neat seeing everything from a new angle. I had never been out on those docks before. We saw the usual water birds there. Lots of pelicans, great blue herons, great egrets and tons of laughing gulls. They were pretty quiet and getting ready for bed since the sun was about to go down. We had a lot of fun and headed back to our cars well after dark. I almost got a parking ticket from running out of meter time but we got back right as he was writing me a ticket and gave me a warning instead. Those guys are so nice!

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Nothing new at Circle B Bar Reserve

Black bellied whistling ducks says "Oh no, here come the photographers".

"Get my good side".

Red bellied woodpecker says "I'll stop for 4 seconds so you can take the picture. Then I'm back to banging on this dead tree."

Great blue herons says "I caught one this big."

Red shoulder hawk says "I'd be king of the jungle here if it wasn't for that annoying eagle."

Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland was calling my name. I hadn't been there since mid-May. It was still miserably hot there at the end of September but I had heard there baby limpkins there. There's no better reason than that to drive 50 minutes across central Florida. The reserve was pretty quiet. It's still a little early for many of the fall birds so there wasn't too many photographers out there. I didn't see the eagles flying around. I saw very few small migraters such as warblers. But, I did find the baby limpkins. They were so cute! More on those later.

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An after work walk around Fort Desoto Park.

Juvenile black bellied plover. I wish I had found this little guy when he just a baby. He would have been really cute and tiny.

Adult black bellied plover. He just kind of stood there like "What do you want?"

Snowy egrets and a great egret fishing off the jetty next to the fishing pier. The sun had gone down behind some nasty clouds.

Snowy egret got a fish!

"Mom, feed me" says the juvenile sandwich tern. Although he's probably big enough to fend for himself, they tend to beg for a while at that age.

Great blue heron thought he had a fish but it was just seaweed.

Cute raccoon hanging around the picnic area.

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St. Petersburg Pier

Great blue heron sitting on the sea wall.

Flowers around the pier.

Scruffy looking grackle with a green grasshopper.

Great blue with his army of white ibis.

Sailing lessons in the bay.

It's always fun to watch the kids taking sailing lessons in the bay near the pier. They follow the leader in the small boat and practice zig zagging around the area. The wind was blowing pretty hard this morning. But, it was warm air so it still felt hot. My highlight of the morning was watching the grackle trying to eat the grasshopper. I didn't see him catch it. I walked up on him with it in his mouth. It took him a while to get it in his beak correctly to swallow it down. Or, maybe he was just trying to decide whether he really wanted to eat that wiggly bug. Maybe I should have offered him some ketchup to help it go down. The best thing about the pier is all of the pelicans that hang around. More on those later.

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