My new bird feeder - Skywatch Friday

"That crazy lady staring at me through the bedroom window thinks I can't get to her bird feeder. I'm going to show her."

"This is way too easy."

"Oh, wait, I think I might fall."

Finally, a bird. But it's just an ole blue jay. He'll probably scare way all of the small cute birds.

Ibis on our neighbor's dock in the rain.

Our resident night heron comes to visit as the sun goes down.

Perfect ending to the weekend.

Yes, I made it way to easy for those squirrels. I put the bird feeder too close to the branch. I'm going to try and move it farther out and lower it. I might try and find something to put over the top so they can't slide down so easily. I know, squirrels always figure out a way. At one point I had one squirrel on the feeder and 3 others on the ground below it chowing down on the seed that had fallen. Any suggestions?

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A weekend in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

Night heron sitting on our dock. It was just starting to sprinkle, even though the sun was out on the other side of the house. He sat in the rain for a while.

This lizard had a pretty green glow. He was sitting inside our screened porch.

I looked out the side window when I heard thunder and saw this guy in our yard.

New oranges after the rain. They won't be ready until December.

After the storm the sun was trying to come out right before it went down.

Wow, it's September 1st. Where did the summer go? School is back in so traffic is awful again. I pass near 3 schools to get to work so I have to now get up 15 minutes earlier to get to work on time. Of course, I still have at least 2 more months of summer heat. The sun is shifting and by the end of October it will be too dark for me to go out after work and take pictures. I need to use the daylight time wisely now but I work in retail and we are getting ready for the holidays so I'm cranking in the overtime. Everyone says it's fall migration season so I'm going to try and get out this weekend to find some tiny little birds. Wish me luck.

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An after work beach trip

Pelican hanging out before sunset. He looks like a juvenile. His feathers are so pretty.

Royal tern

Taking off.

Sandwich terns taking off.

Juvenile night heron turning from brown to gray. This was the first time I had seen a night heron that had just a few brown feathers left. He's almost an adult.

Just a few birds from my last trip to Redington Shores to see the baby skimmers. The beach had a few shorebirds on the beach right before sunset. I found the night heron hanging out at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. I was surprised to see the patch of brown still on him. I've never seen seen a night heron in mid molt. I've only seen the blue herons who start out white and then turn blue in mid molt. Night herons don't seem to show much emotion. They just sit there quietly.

Almost night in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

Right before it got dark, I peaked out the window and saw this night heron sitting on our dock. He's been hanging around the channel a lot lately but this was the first time I've seen him not hiding underneath someone's dock.

One of the frogs living in our shutters. I wonder if he's a young one. He's prettier than the other ones I've seen. I love his little round fingers.

The clouds were moving out just as the sun was going down. Story of our lives. It rains all day and just as it's about to get dark, the clouds leave and the sun peaks out.

Another night in paradise.

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Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

Juvenile night heron.

A few late baby pelicans.

Scruffy looking great egret. I think he had been fishing for food.

Pelican fly by.

On my way to see the baby skimmers, I stopped by the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary to visit the injured birds. The sanctuary had opened the nets on the big pelican pen so that all of the baby pelicans that were born there could fly away. I guess anything that's not injured can fly out. I did find a few late baby pelicans there. They must have been the last ones to be born. When I was there in early spring the place was full of white fuzzy baby pelicans. Now they are all grown up and gone. There were also a  lot of juvenile night herons hanging around the trees. The wild night herons come there to have their babies.

Stop by the seabird sanctuary if you are ever in the Tampa Bay area. It's free to get in but they really need donations. Seabird Sanctuary link

Baby night herons at Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

Profile of adult black crowned night heron. Those red eyes really stick out.

Night heron hanging on the roof of the sanctuary.

Baby night heron high up in the tree.

Adult night heron.

Baby screaming for mom.

Most people go to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary to see the normal stuff; injured pelicans, egrets and a few raptors. But what surprises a lot of people when they get there is the baby birds high up in the trees. Colonies of night herons descend on the sanctuary during this time and build nests in the shade trees over the sanctuary. They have babies there and it can get really loud with all of those baby night herons screaming for food. I guess the wild night herons think it's a safe place to raise a family. The trees are full of them right now. It's interesting how different the babies look from the parents. They start out brown spotted and end up that pretty shade of cream and gray. Just be careful where you stand at the sanctuary. Those shade trees are full of birds and that poop has to go somewhere. Take it from someone who knows, bird poop is not good for the camera. I spent a few minutes in the bathroom cleaning my lens. I hope I got it all off.  

Kapok Park in December

"Can someone please clean up my home?" says the night heron.

Warbler

Loggerhead shrike posed in the tree.

I couldn't find this duck in my Florida Audubon app. It was a surface feeding duck. I've never seen this one before.

My first kildeer shot. There were 3 of them but they are very skittish and I couldn't get them all together.

Muscovy ducks don't get much attention. This guy was watching me for a while when I was taking pictures of the kildeer so I turned around and snapped a few of him.

A quick pre-New Year's walk around Kapok Park provided a few new birds for me. This was the first time I had seen a kildeer that close and I had never seen a loggerhead shrike at Kapok before. Still trying to figure out what type of duck that was. It was all alone feeding near a group of limpkins and ibis. There seems to be a lot of trash in the lake. The only way to clean it up would be to get a boat in there. I'm sure with cutbacks there's no one maintaining these small parks. 

Birds on the causeway - Skywatch Friday

Another stop on the Courtney Campbell causeway during my drive home from work two weeks ago. I'm really going to miss these now that the time has changed and it's a dark trip home.  The above was a flock of skimmers that took off when a jogger went running by. At first I was mad at the jogger for disturbing the birds but it did make for a nicer picture.

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Cute little plover watching me.

A small group of marbled godwits trying to sleep. I think I was keeping them up even though I wasn't too close.

Finally, the sun went down and the moon came out. I took this on the causeway with my 300mm lens handheld.

Dowitchers walking along the shore after sunset.

Sanderling running for cover after dark. I used my flash on this one.

You can usually find at least one night heron on the causeway. This was an immature.

Carillon boardwalk in north St. Petersburg.

Juvenile northern mockingbird. There were lots of mockingbirds there.

The usual alligator. He was swimming by the birds below.


Three juvenile night herons. The alligator was swimming close by. I think that's why they were standing at attention.

Lots of butterflies around.

Lots of turtles as well.

I found a new park close by work. It's actually not new, I just had not taken the time to stop there. I didn't think there would be much to see. It's a medium size lake with a boardwalk around most of it and surrounded on most sides by office buildings. There's a small section that has a trail and is covered by trees and mangroves. I left work later than usual one day recently and just decided to stop by and walk around. There was a handful of after work joggers running around. It had the usual water birds, alligators and turtles. I'll definitely stop there again since it's so close to work.

Neighborhood visitors over Labor Day weekend.

This immature blue heron was walking around next to our dock at low tide. He should turn all blue by his next molt.

Saturday I walked out into our screened in porch to water some plants and looked up and saw the above juvenile ibis staring at me from our fence. I went back inside and took this from the dining room window.

Sunday afternoon it was drizzling. I looked out the window and saw a few ducks heading down the channel for our dock. This is the first time I've seen a white duck in our channel. I looked it up and it's a type of mallard, so it's the same as the brown ducks that are with it. I ran out to the dock and snapped a few pictures in the rain.

When I went outside in the rain to take pictures of the white duck I saw the above night heron sitting on our dock. I took this picture from the door of the screened in porch. He must be young because his yellow crown was not quite yellow yet.

This girl is a temporary resident who is living in our screened in porch. I think the balls on the left have baby spiders inside. I need to sweep this spider outside or I might be having tons of spiders living in my porch soon.

Another resident, this was taken on my window sill. We have several frogs living in our shutters. I hadn't seen any in a while but Friday night he was sitting there when we got home from dinner so I ran in and got my camera.