Yellow flowers everywhere - Skywatch Friday

My black Friday after Thanksgiving was actually a bright yellow Friday. I headed out to Circle B Bar Reserve for a walk through the park. For 3 hours I  hiked the trails and the above was the view every step of the way.  I've been told these are bur marigolds. Every year in the fall around mid November they bloom. The park is covered with them. It's a beautiful sight to see when walking the trails. It's still a little early for some of the winter birds to arrive but it's worth going to see the flowers. They should bloom until we get a good freeze sometime in January. I hope they are still there around the holidays because I hope to get out there to look for the white pelicans that migrate in for a short time. Keeping our fingers crossed, they should start arriving by Christmas.

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Sunrise birds at Circle B Bar Reserve

Just before the sun came up, birds were flying everywhere.

Limpkin in the early morning light.

There's plenty of woodpeckers everywhere.

My only eagle sightings of the day were from far away.

This was the most photographed bird of the day. He must have sat in the same spot all morning as all of the photographers walked down the trail. Everyone at the photo walk that morning got the same shots.

Fish crows doing a blast off.

Pretty flowers everywhere.

All of the above where taken on my photo meetup walk at the beginning of November. There wasn't much bird activity out that day. After the exciting sunrise, we walked the trails and saw very little in the way of unusual birds. Everyone got excited seeing the red shouldered hawk and started snapping away. We saw several eagles from far away. At one point, two eagles were chasing each other high in the sky. It was cool to watch but then we were like "Did anybody get any pictures of that?" It happened so quick nobody got a shot. Things are picking up at the reserve. The yellow flowers are out in full force and a few migrating ducks have arrived.  More on those later.

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Baby Limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve

"This looks really yummy Mom."

"Hey, wait, that's my bite."

"Let's go get more snails Mom."

"It's break time. Mom's tired of dunking her head under water for snails."

"Look at my cool wings. Soon I'll be flying"

"For now I'll just have to walk."

I had heard there were baby limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve while I was on my trip to South Dakota. It seems late for babies but better late than never. I couldn't wait to get back and go looking for them. I'm not sure how old they were when I took these, maybe 3 to 4 weeks old. They grow up fast. I walked down to Wading Bird trail and didn't see them at first. Mom was in the water looking for snails and I think the 2 babies were hiding in the nearby bushes. All of sudden out pops mom and the babies on to the trail. She had brought them out to feed them on the side. After a quick bite, they headed back into the bushes along the water. About half an hour later they came back out with another snail. There were originally 4 babies and now it's down to 2. There's lots of alligators in water at the park. Hopefully, the last 2 will make it. 

Kapok Park after work

Red winged blackbird yelling at me to get off his boardwalk.

Juvenile blue heron. He must be getting close to hitting that one year mark. Blue herons are born all white then over the course of their first year they change to blue.

Red bellied woodpecker getting a snack.

I was leaving and it was just starting to get dark. There's a deep ditch close by the small parking area. I heard the limpkin calling before I saw him. It was dark down in the ditch so I turned my flash on and took the below picture. I realized the ditch was full of snails. There were 3 limpkins in the ditch having a feast. This was right before the heavy rains started so the water in the ditch was pretty low.

One of the million dragonfly pictures that I will take. When birding gets slow in the heat of the summer I start shooting dragonflies.

One of the normal sights I see on my drive home. Osprey sitting on the light post. A couple of weekends ago, hubby and I were on our way back from the beach and counted 28 osprey sitting on lightposts on the big bridge across the Tampa bay. That broke the record of 22 from several summers ago.

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Limpkin family from far away

I found this limpkin preening on top of a small hill. It looked like he was sitting on an empty nest.

Limpkin mom (with her head stuck in the water) and 3 babies.

Mom hanging out with the kids.

One of the babies. They look almost full grown but still have a little fuzz on their heads.

Baby staying close to mom.

On a recent stop at Kapok Park after work, I saw a limpkin family from across the lake. I walked around the park for a while thinking the night was going to be a bust. All I had seen so far was moorhens (more on those later.) I walked further around the lake than I usually do and found a lone limpkin sitting on an empty nest. I was thinking that I must have missed out. As I walked back around the lake I noticed some movement in the reeds across the lake. Luckily, I had my 500mm lens with me, even though that didn't even get me close. It was also just starting to get dark when I found them so the light on these pictures where tough. The babies were almost grown but they were still pretty cute. They stayed close to mom.

Baby hawks and the usual birds at Circle B.

Limpkin eating a snail on Alligator Alley trail.

This looks like an immature red shouldered hawk.

Immature little blue heron turning blue.

Two of the smaller baby red shouldered hawks.

The older sibling.

My first hawk babies were seen at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. A red shouldered hawk couple had built a nest behind the barred owl's nest. The barred owl babies had flown the coupe when I got there but a nice surprise was behind the nest. I could hear the baby hawks screaming. The birds were very far away across a river so the above pictures are highly cropped. Things are starting to slow down at the reserve. It's getting hot there and all of the migrate birds are almost gone or will be gone soon. All of the babies are growing up fast. I'm going to try and head out there one more time before the summer heat sets in. Then it's more trips to the coast where at least you get a sea breeze.

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Kapok Park after work.

Limpkin with a snack.

Follow the leader. Baby mallards following mom.

Red bellied woodpecker. You can barely see the red on it's belly.

It's checking to make sure it's a red bellied woodpecker as well.

Baby blue heron. This was taken in bad light but I thought it was interesting to see how the blue is starting to come out.

Tri-colored heron standing guard.

I stopped by Kapok Park in Clearwater on the way home from work last week. There wasn't anything unusual there. It was a nice walk anyway. It's a challenge to photograph there after work because the sun is going to down on the opposite side of all the best stuff. There's a lot of shade as well. The best time for the light is in the morning but I can't make it there before work so I go after work. I was really disappointed there were no great horned owls there. For the last 2 spring seasons a couple have raised a baby there. No owls this year. I'm going to try and get to the park quite a bit this summer. It beats sitting in traffic.

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Amazing Circle B Bar Reserve - Skywatch Friday

These blue-gray gnatcatchers are so cute. He was like "Look up in the sky."

Ring billed gull eating a fish on the trail.

Limpkin walking around the trail with a snail.

My first decent American bittern picture. This is only the 2nd time I've seen this type of bird. The first was probably the same bird. It has been hanging around near the intersection of Heron Hideout and Marsh Rabbit Run trail at Circle B Bar Reserve for a while now. They are really hard to spot because they blend in so well and don't move for hours but if you're there on the weekends just look for the group of photographers taking pictures at that intersection.

Circle B has several bald eagle nests but they are very far away.

This one was a pretty decent size.

I took this looking north across the marsh on Wading Bird Trail. Usually, this area is full of coots but for some reason it was nice and quiet that afternoon.

I had never been to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland in the afternoon. Only in the morning and I'm usually on my way home by noon. One Sunday recently it was just too nice to sit inside and watch my husband watch golf on tv. I decided to head out for a long walk at Circle B. I thought the trip might be a bust since everything would be hiding and napping in the afternoon. It was late enough that all the animals were up and moving around. I saw a few things there that I had not seen before including northern shovelers. I'll be posting more on those later and also have an otter video to post later. Next time I go I think I might have to pack a lunch and spend the whole day there.

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