A trip to Tarpon Springs - Skywatch Friday

There's only one place to go for good Greek food in the Tampa Bay area, Tarpon Springs. It's almost an hour north of the Tampa airport but it's worth the drive. The little Greek town sits on the water and has a long sponge diving history. The main street has restaurants, tourist shops and boat tours. Whenever family or friends come to town we head there for a meal. My sister was in town recently and we went up for an afternoon of lunch and walking around. After eating the best Greek salads ever, we stopped in Hellas Bakery. We got a box full of Greek pastries to take home to eat over the weekend. It's not a place to count calories. I know, you're thinking "what's this got to do with wildlife?" I did manage to find a few birds there to take pictures of, both domestic and wild. But it's hard to think about birds when I've got a box of chocolate covered baklava in my hand.

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An hour in a cemetery before sundown.

Red bellied woodpecker on the side of a utility pole.

There's a flock of wild parrots that live around the cemetery.

They were looking down at my like "lady what are you doing?"

There also seems to be a pair of raccoons that live in the cemetery.

I couldn't tell what he was chewing on. He wouldn't let me get close.

American kestrel on top of large snag.

The sun was about to go down and the kestral was trying to sleep. (Moon in the background)

I finally saw the eagle sticking it's head out of the nest.

I was able to leave work a little early on the Friday before MLK day and decided to head to the cemetery in St. Petersburg where the eagle's nest was. I had a little more than an hour before the sun was going down and I had to head back to Tampa for dinner. I got there and no eagles were present. I thought "maybe he'll be back with a fish soon." No luck the entire hour. I didn't even see anything on the nest until I was leaving and looked back out of the window of the car and saw a head pop up. I stopped and took the last picture. I've since heard the babies should be hatching some time this week so I'm going to have to make another stop soon. My hour wasn't wasted. It's amazing the amount of wildlife in a cemetery. I guess they don't get a lot of traffic through there on a regular basis although while I was there several cars stopped by to check on the eagles.

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Wild parrots at Crescent Lake

There's a group of wild monk parrots living around the water tower at Crescent Lake Park. They have several nests built into the steps of the water tower like the above picture. There's a baseball field next to the tower and the parrots were hanging out on the fence behind home plate. It was obviously mating season. They were pairing up and preening each other. They were very loud birds. I'm sure the neighbors around that park get tired of hearing that squawking all day. They are beautiful birds though, and very animated. I just stood by the ball park fence for a while and watched them fly back and forth. Every once in a while they would look over at me but did not pay too much attention to me.

Pinellas birds on a Saturday morning

Ibis digging for food in Tampa Bay.


Boattail grackle eating a berry at the Safety Harbor fishing pier.

Great Blue Heron trying to sleep at Kapok Park.

Wild parrot at Kapok Park. These guys are always high up in trees.

Saturday morning brought perfect weather so I decided to hit some parks close to home. First I stopped at Kapok Park. It was a quiet morning. Not too many birds there. I saw a flock of wild parrots flying around high up in the trees. It's so hard to get decent pictures of them because they stay so high up. I looked for the owls but could not find them. Maybe they haven't come back yet. I'll keep looking. Next I stopped by the Safety Harbor fishing pier. Even though the tide was low there were not a lot of birds around. Lots of manatees still there. I was leaning on the railing of the pier taking pictures of the manatees when this grackle landed on the rail right next to me. He had a berry in his mouth and seemed to be showing off his prize. I got a few good pictures of him before he flew off. On the way home I stopped by Philippe Park and managed to get a very far away picture (see below) of the eagle pair that has come back for the winter. Last winter and spring they spent a lot of time on the first utility tower in the water. The picture was taken with my 500mm lens and extremely cropped.

Lowry Park Zoo birds

Parrots at the entrance to the zoo. They are not in a cage.

Wild egret hanging around the manatee pool (looking for a handout).



Wild great blue heron stalking the cheetah pond. I've seen one there several times. The food must be good.

Pretty bird in the aviary.

Boat billed heron in the aviary.

I had Monday off so I went to the zoo in the morning. I figured there wouldn't be a lot of people there. I was right. There were also a few animals missing. Keepers were busy cleaning pens so a handfull of animals were not out including the baby rhino and the tigers which I specifically came to see. Lots of birds there though. They have several aviaries that you can walk around and see the birds up close. It's funny to see the wildlife there always looking for a handout. The manatee pools always have pelicans, egrets and herons hanging around wanting to be fed. The penguin pool always has a flock of wild ibis trying to steal fish. There are ducks with babies swimming around the primate pools. I guess if I was a wild animal I would hang out at the zoo as well.