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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Sex on the beach - almost

It all starts here. He says "Come on honey, we have pro-create."

She says "Not now, tourists are watching."

He says "I'll bring home some extra fish." She says "Okay, maybe."

He goes for it.

She scoots back and he misses. She wants to see the extra fish first!

Lots of breeding action happening on the beach right now. I took these at Fort Desoto where all of the laughing gulls have paired up. They're all hanging out in twos. At any given time you might catch some gull hanky panky going on. Just tell the kids they're practicing their frog leaps. There are so many gulls on the beach but I don't know where they nest. I've never seen nesting gulls or baby gulls. I see other babies around Fort Desoto. Last spring there was a famous american oystercatcher couple with two babies running around on the beach. I've seen lots of baby skimmers on the beach as well. Maybe the gulls go off site to have their babies. I haven't seen them in the roped off areas so I'm not sure where all these gulls go to nest. 

A plea to visitors to the Florida coast, please don't feed the birds. The gulls are aggressive and obnoxious. I've seen them take a sandwich from a little kid. It's all cute and fun at first. You feed one or two. Then they call their friends and before you know it you have 50 gulls pooping on your beach blanket (or your head). 

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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Foggy morning at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

One of the hundreds of northern gannets affected by the oil spill recouperating. The sanctuary released a handful of the few remaining this past week.

Great egret eating at the beach entrance to the sanctuary. Not sure if it caught the fish itself or stole it from the santuary.

Laughing gulls in the fog on the beach.

It was a quiet morning on the beach due to the fog and impending storm.

Flying in the fog. There's always some kid chasing after the poor birds, even in the fog.

Fog on the beach is kinda cool (unless you're a tourist trying to get a tan). Luckly for me (and the tourist), most weekends right now are nice. But recently, on my trip to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, it was foggy until late in the morning. There weren't too many people out walking on the strip of beach that the sanctuary sits on. The beach was full of gulls hiding out until the fog lifted. It's hard to get good pictures in the fog, everything looks gray in the background. But, still, even a foggy walk on the beach is pretty great.

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New Year's Day at Fort Desoto Park - Skywatch Friday

While everyone up north was snowed in, I spent New Year's Day at the beach. Ahh, the advantages of living in Florida. I spent Christmas weekend in snowy, dreary Atlanta but on this morning I rolled out of bed, threw on shorts and a t-shirt and headed for Fort Desoto beach. It was really windy out but in the sun it was warm. We walked around the usual bird areas but didn't find too much that afternoon. The beach area was full of laughing gulls. I'm not sure what the brown birds are. The almost look like cowbirds. There was a huge flock of them in a field and I thought it was neat the way they would line up on the ground and the back row would move to the front and they kept moving across the field this way.

The strong wind brought out the kiteboarders. There was a large crowd of spectators watching. The guy in the first picture was the only guy I saw without a wet suit on. He must have been freezing. Or maybe he was from up north?

It was a nice way to spend the day!

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Storms around the causeway - My World Tuesday

Storms were moving into the Tampa area a few weeks ago.

I took this on my way home from work from a parking deck on Rocky Point island.

Typical of Florida, it was raining across the bay but not where I was.

Skimmers were hanging out in the parking lot on Rocky Point island.

Looks like these laughing gulls were settling in for the night.

Just a few weeks ago we were getting storms every day late in the afternoon. Even in late September.  I had my camera in the car and was ready to go to a park after work but the storms looked bad. On my way home though, it looked like it might clear up. I stopped on the Courtney Campbell causeway and shot a few pictures before the sun went down. This was the last big storm since then.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!   http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/.

Manatees at Safety Harbor Fishing Pier.

The above pictures were taken a few weeks ago. It was cloudy and rainy when I left work so I decided to head to the grocery store instead of a park to take pictures. Since I had my camera in the car and the storms were moving away I decided to stop by the Safety Harbor fishing pier on the way. It was really windy and there wasn't a single person fishing, which means there were almost no birds there as well. There were a few stray laughing gulls. There was also lots of manatees. Because of the storms the water was not clear so I could only catch their noses coming up for air but it was fun to watch them for a few minutes before I headed off to the grocery store (a chore I hate).

All the birds are hungry!

Osprey got his prize fish.

The juvenile laughing gull grabbed a fish but then dropped it. I think he needs more practice.

The above great blue heron stealing a fish from a man standing in the water fishing.

Note to people in the Tampa Bay area - don't leave food sitting out uncovered. I've seen gulls steal a sandwich off a blanket at the beach with a person sitting right behind it. I've seen them take a potato chip out of a kid's hand when the kid was about to eat it. They are very aggressive at stealing food and fish from fishermen. Hubby and I always eat our lunch sitting under the beach umbrella. It keeps the attack gulls away.

On our walk around Sand Key Park recently we saw lots of birds feeding. The osprey and gull were fishing for food under the big bridge where the small fishing piers are. For once I was paying attention and was able to get some decent shots of the osprey with a fish. The great blue heron was watching a man fishing for a while on the beach. That bird was smart. Once the man walked back in the water, the bird walked up to the bucket and grabbed a fish. Then the man got smart and came back on the beach and covered the bucket. Hey, everyone's got to eat, right?

Skywatch Friday - Birds at Sand Key Park

A recent trip to Sand Key Park shows just how beautiful the beaches are in the Tampa Bay area. It was suppose to be rainy but hubby and I went anyway just to get out of the house and walk around. When we got there the sun came out and was beautiful most of the time we were there. The above laughing gulls were sitting on a ridge in the sand that really showed off the blue sky and water.



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

Laughing gull had an itch.

Osprey was flying high overhead.

Gull in flight.

Great blue heron was hiding in trees by the big bridge. I think I woke him up. He was a little wind blown.

Willet was coughing up something. Probably a piece of fish.

There's always a lot of snowy egrets hanging around the fishing piers at Sand Key.