Quiet Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto

Dowitchers trying to sleep.

Great blue heron goes flying by.

Looks like a black tern in non-breeding colors. This was the only one I saw in flock of laughing gulls.

Herring gull.

Flock of skimmers and sandwich terns. I think the black tern was in this crowd.  Someone came walking by and scared them.

Skimmer flying by.

A recent Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto was pretty quiet. Even though the peak tourist season is over there were still a lot of people hanging around the north beach. I didn't see anything different or unusual there on this trip. I did see a bald eagle fly by from very far away. It was too far to even try and crop but it was the first time I had seen one fly over the beach. Now that the weather is absolutely perfect I'll be headed there a lot more.

Sunshine Skyway fishing pier - Skywatch Friday

Another trip to the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier. The weather is just too nice not to be outside. I was still surprised to see so few pelicans out flying around. I guess they just don't like this particular pier. There were a lot of other birds around though. The above egrets were sitting on top of the bait fish shop on the pier.

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I think I was half way down the pier when I took this picture of the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

This great egret was trying to hide his catch.

At the end of the fishing pier, someone must have started feeding the gulls because they all started flying around and acting crazy.

I think this juvenile herring gull must have gotten this fish from a fisherman. Either he stole it or it was given to him.

Adult herring gull posing for me.