Kayaking - Skywatch Friday

My kayaking view from upper Tampa Bay.

I'm paddling along and I see this bird in the dead mangroves (still dead from the big freeze winter before this last one).

I stop and think "I've never seen this bird before." I paddle backwards towards the birds and get out my camera.

When I got home I looked it up in the Florida Audubon guide. I think it's an eastern kingbird, which is a type of flycatcher. If so, then it's a first for me. I had my small point and shoot camera so I wasn't able to get a good close up of them. And rocking back and forth in a kayak doesn't help. There was 2 of them and they flew around the edge of the mangroves for a while. They didn't seem to be too skittish (not as bad as kingfishers) but if my kayak floated too close to the mangroves they would move over a few branches.

Least terns on the sign.

There's usually a least tern on every crab trap bouy.

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Kayaking in the backyard

Royal tern preening and a caspian tern watching.

There's always laughing gulls around. 

I thought all of the wintering kingfishers were gone but this guy was hanging out in the mangroves. He was far away and wouldn't let me close in my kayak.

Two spoonbills fly overhead. All I saw was a flash of pink high in the sky.

There were lots of willets and marbled godwits on people's docks.

The usual osprey.

I finally got around to a kayaking trip in the channels in our neighborhood in mid April.  I always go out not expecting to see much but I am usually pleasantly surprised. As I was paddling out into the open bay in upper Tampa Bay, several dolphins went whizzing by me. I didn't get the chance to get my camera out. They went by and were gone so fast. There's always a lot of shorebirds, gulls and terns hanging around the docks of the houses that sit out on the open bay. A few docks have fake owls to keep the birds off but I think the birds know they are fake. I've seen osprey sitting on top of the fake owl before.

All of the above were taken with my old Fuji point and shoot camera. I haven't tried to take my new Nikon D7000 on the kayak. It's so much to pack and stick in my small kayak. I'd rather travel light when I'm paddling.

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Skywatch Friday - Kayaking North Tampa Bay

I looked out the window last weekend and saw beautiful blue skies. Hubby wanted to watch sports on tv so I opted for a paddle around the channels in our neighborhood. I've never seen spoonbills in the mangroves near our channel so I was surprised to find the above sitting in the bushes when I paddled by.

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Great egret also sitting in the mangrove bushes.

I paddled along the mangroves across from the Courtney Campbell Causeway and the water got very shallow. Low tide moved in on me fast. The 4 spoonbills were standing in the water feeding and stopped to pose for me when I paddled by.

There was a variety of different birds hanging out at this shallow spot.



I'm thinking the one in the middle is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a lesser or greater. I don't see these very often. The ones on the ends are both willets. You can see how shallow the water was.


At one point I got out of my kayak and was dragging it behind me because the water was so shallow in some places. I was a little nervous because there were stingrays everywhere. I was careful and did the stingray shuffle. Even though you could see the bottom, those guys could be half hidden under the sand.

There were tons of the above crown conchs everywhere.

Coming back into the main channel, the above spoonbills were walking around. It was a very productive spoony day!

Kayaking with ducks

Last weekend I went for a quick kayak trip in our neighborhood. It was windy and choppy so I stayed in the canals instead of venturing too far out in the open bay. There weren't too many birds around. There was a momma duck with one baby that showed up and paddled along side of me for a while. They were really cute. I guess they thought I would feed them. I know a lot of the neighbors feed the ducks in the canals. On my way back home I stopped to snap a blue heron that was watching me paddle by. It was the only other bird I saw besides the duck. The above were taken with my old point and shoot.

Skywatch Friday - Went kayaking

I went kayaking in the upper Tampa Bay channels (my backyard) last weekend. When I paddle out to the end of our channel this is where I end up. There were storms across the bay but it took a couple of hours for it to reach me. I kayaked for 2 hours before I could hear the thunder and then paddled quickly back to my house. Of course the storms fooled me and never made it to my house that afternoon.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

Least tern sitting on a crab trap.

Osprey sitting on a channel marker.

There's always cormorants sitting on the channel markers.

Last weekend was a quiet trip. Again, I didn't see any dolphins or manatees. This is my 2nd trip out in a couple of weeks without seeing either. Last summer I didn't see manatees until August. They hung around until mid-November, then headed for warmer waters for the winter.

Memorial Day kayaking

Osprey sitting in the dead mangroves.

The tops of the mangrove bushes across from Courtney Campbell Causeway are all dead. The cold winter must have really damaged them. There is green underneath so it may take a while for them to grow back.

Sandwich tern on one of my neighbor's docks. I don't usually see any sandwich terns in our neighborhood.

I think these are willets on the left. Laughing gull on the right.

Another osprey sitting on a channel marker. He just watched me paddle by.

I had a pelican floating along side of me for a while.

Since I had Monday off, I decided to go kayaking for a few hours while hubby watch sports on tv. It was hot. There weren't too many birds out nor did I see any dolphins or manatees. I think this is the first time I haven't seen dolphins when I go kayaking in the channels in our backyard. I took my small old point and shoot camera with me since I didn't feel like packing up all of my good camera stuff. The mangroves out in the open bay look so sad. It's brown twigs as far as you can see. Hopefully, once the rainy season starts, the green part will start to grow out.