An eagle and an osprey at Honeymoon Island

My first eagle pictures of the fall 2011 season are not good. They were taken from far away and extremely cropped. They've been back in the Tampa bay area for at least a month now and I keep missing great shot opportunities. A couple of weeks ago I was on my way to the dentist for a 7:30 am appointment and saw 2 eagles sitting in a cell phone tower that sits right on a main road. On my way to work from the dentist an hour later they were gone. I haven't seen them there since but I know they are somewhere close by. I saw several eagles flying high up in the sky during my photo walk at Circle B Bar reserve but they were so far away I couldn't get a shot. This past weekend was beautiful so hubby and I decided to hike the nature trail at Honeymoon Island. We hadn't been since early spring. The eagle's nest sits all the way at the end of the trail. When we first got there we didn't see any eagles. We wandered around for a while and came back to the nest before hiking back to our car. As we stood there talking for a few minutes, one of the eagles flew in and landed on the nest. Then it flew to a nearby branch for a few minutes before taking off again. The park keeps the area where the nest is closed off so you have to watch from far away. The law states 500 ft from the nest but I've heard the nest is actually over 800 ft from the fence area. As we left, the park ranger said the female was sitting down close into the nest and she was sitting on eggs. Yeah, I'll have to head back there after the holidays.

The last two pictures are of an osprey that had just landed with a fish close to the trail. Soon the trail will be full of osprey starting to nest but it's a little early now. We saw just a few of them flying around.

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Bald eagle family at Honeymoon Island

Parent sitting in a nearby tree.

I don't know what it was watching.

One of the babies standing on the nest.

One baby was trying to talk to the other one (who is hiding behind the pine needles).

The other baby did not move from this spot.

This is probably  my last check on the eagle family at Honeymoon Island. Both babies seem to be doing fine and they are probably flying by now. This was taken two weeks ago. The nest is closed off by more than 500 feet (which is the legal limit on public land). It's probably more like 800 feet. This family was far away and the pictures are extremely cropped. During my visit, one of the parents flew into a tree that was closer to the trail. It sat there for a few minutes and was watching something. Eventually it flew off into the distance. I do want to go back to check on the osprey nests in the next couple of weeks but by then the eagles will probably be gone.  Oh well, until next year!

Osprey at Honeymoon Island - Skywatch Friday

I remember the first time I saw an osprey. My dad died in the spring of 2001 and my mom decided she wanted to move to a retirement community rather than live alone. She was a very sociable person. She moved into this great apartment on the 4th floor and right across the driveway was an osprey nest! My sisters and I stood on the balcony asking ourselves "What is that bird?" I remembered that we had packed an old waterbird book that my dad had bought years ago at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. We dug that out and flipped through the pages. There it was, an osprey. Or fish hawk as it also know. It's a type of hawk that catches fish with it's talons. The ospreys had babies on the nest, although we could barely see them. We spent that week watching that nest with a pair of old binoculars. Later the next year I moved down here with hubby and at some point we noticed all of the osprey that would hang out on the bridges eating fish. It became a habit of mine to count the number of osprey on the bridge on the way home from work. Several summers ago I got up to 22 on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. This past summer I think I only hit 12. 

One of the best places to see them is at Honeymoon Island. There's a lot of nesting going on but I don't think there are any babies yet. There are tons of osprey on the trail flying around and eating. I saw all of the above while heading to the end of the trail to check on the eagle's nest. I'm going to try and check back in another month to see if I can catch some baby osprey.

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Osprey at Honeymoon Island

Osprey were flying everywhere.

 

"I'm full. Want the leftovers?"

"Don't make fun of my tiny fish."

"When is Valentine's Day again?"

Osprey Trail at Honeymoon Island is full of.... wait for it.....opsrey.  Although, the best part of osprey trial is the end where the eagle's nest is. To get to the eagle's nest you have to walk by a ton of osprey. The trail is buzzing with pre-nesting osprey activity. Osprey were flying over my head non-stop. I only saw 2 nests that had osprey sitting on them. It's a little early but in the next couple of weeks there will be osprey couples all over the place. They get loud when you walk by so the trail is pretty noisy.  I'm going to try and get back there soon to see osprey babies.

Bald eagle's nest at Honeymoon Island

Bald eagle soaring by.

Flying past me through the pine trees.

This one still has some lunch on his beak.

Bringing home the bacon (or fish).

Almost home. The fish looked like it was half eaten already.

Finally home.

Sitting on the nest.

The rangers at Honeymoon Island say the eagle couple have 2 babies on the nest. This time last year the babies were big enough to see their heads popping out. This year they are a little later. I'll go back in another 2 weeks. When I got there one parent was sleeping on the nest and one was sleeping on a snag close by. I decided to walk around the park for a while and check back later. Not too far from the nest, I saw one flying by and headed back to the nest. I got there right as the eagle was flying back with a fish. The nest is about a mile and a half walk from the parking lot. The nest is closed off way more than the standard 500 feet to keep people from getting too close. It's good for the eagles to have their space but you'll need binoculars to see them. I had my 500mm lens and the above are highly cropped.

Hopefully, I'll have some baby pictures soon.

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Windy day at Honeymoon Island

Is this a caspian tern or common tern?  They both look alike. Anyway, it's fairly rare to see one here. Too many laughing gulls around.

Black vulture posing on snag.

This looks like a pine warbler. It was the closest thing in my Audubon guide.

Woodpecker hanging upside down.

 

I think this is a juvenile ring-billed gull (adult below). There were a handful of ring billed gulls hanging around on the beach. This one was eating the insides of the conch.

Adult ring billed gull. I like the way their feet matches their beak.

Kiteboarder at Honeymoon Island.  Looking down to Clearwater beach.

Two weekends ago it was very windy. I decided to hit the nature trail at Honeymoon Island to see what was going on with the eagles there. I had heard they had 2 baby chicks but they were still too small to show their heads. It didn't feel windy on the inside wooded trail but I decided to head north along the mangrove trail to the north end beach. The wind was blasting. There were only a few gulls hanging around, no other shorebirds.  There wasn't a large variety of birds on the trail. I think the weather had blown them away. There are tons of osprey, more on those later. I decided to hit the beach before I headed home but when I got there it was just too windy (and I was hungry) so I didn't stay long. The rocky beach section was full of live conchs. The gulls were feeding off of them and a few shell seekers were looking around.  A few kiteboarders were out and they were moving fast across the water.

When I got home my husband said "Weren't you cold?" I said "No, wimp."

Birds at Honeymoon Island (and a crab too).

Two baby opsrey letting me know it's their trail I'm walking on. (It is called Osprey Trail at Honeymoon Island for a reason.)

One of the parents looking around.

Willet

Cormorant going for a swim.

Loney least tern on the beach.

Last weekend I went to Honeymoon Island to walk the Opsrey Trail. I hadn't been there in several months. It was so hot, even early in the morning. There's not much going on there except for ospreys. Lots of them still hanging around the nests. I didn't see many other birds until I got out on the beach. There was a controlled burn done recently on the first part of the trail, so that may have scared off some of the birds for a while. The northern beach did not have much bird traffic as well. I think my next trip out to the trail will not be until the eagles come back, hopefully December. I did see the below crab on shoreline.

Osprey nesting season

It's osprey nesting season at Honeymoon Island. The nests on the trail (appropriately titled Osprey trail) are full of osprey couples. Lots of activity going on with them flying around with sticks and fish in their mouths. I'm not sure if there are many babies yet but there must be lots of eggs. Almost every nest had at least one osprey camped out on it. There must be at least 20 nests on the trail with some sitting right on the path.

You should check out the Dunedin osprey cam. There are 2 babies on the nest and they are moving around a lot now. It's really cute to watch.

http://ospreynest.info/index.php?pagecontent=home

Baby eagles update

Baby eagles on each side of the nest with one of the parents in the middle.

One of the proud parents sitting on a branch next to the nest.

One of the babies was flapping his wings while the other looks.

This past Sunday I made a trip to Honeymoon Island to see how big the baby eagles have gotten. It's amazing how much they have grown since I was there 5 weeks ago. They were sitting on the nest looking almost as big as their parents. They are around 9-10 weeks old. In the next 2 weeks they will probably start to fly. They will spend 4-5 weeks after their first flight still hanging around the nest building up their wing strength. I think I'm going to have to make a trip out there again before they leave for good.

Honeymoon Island

Lots of osprey flying around.



Stay away from my fish!

Two osprey sitting near their nest.

First time I have ever seen a tortoise there. He was sitting right on the Opsrey Trail.

I was admiring these pretty red leaves that were growing everywhere and someone told me they were poison ivy. Glad I didn't get too close.

It's starting to get very busy at Honeymoon Island with all of the opsrey setting up house. There are a ton of osprey nests along the trail. Many of them already have at least one osprey sitting on them. Soon there will be baby osprey crying everywhere. The best time to go is early in the morning (early to me is 9 or 10am). They are flying around with sticks and fish. Lots of activity before lunch. I did see a lot of other birds and animals as well. There were 2 armadillo walking along the trail.