Chesnut Park

Female anhinga with something stuck on her beak.  These birds always strike nice poses. She's probably thinking "I hope you can photoshop this thing off my beak."

Pileated woodpecker stopping for a picture. There's a handful of them living at the park and even if I don't see them I can hear them calling loudly across the woods.

Red shouldered hawk sitting quietly. He was sitting very close to the boardwalk and stayed there while several people walked by and stopped to take pictures.

Some type of warbler.

Coots in the water. Coots are back for the winter and are everywhere.

A tiny alligator getting some sun.

The weather has cooled off a bit. The morning I went out for a walk at Chesnut Park it was windy and cool. The park is mostly wooded and the shade felt much colder than the sun. There was also a strong wind coming off the lake. Even the hawk was fluffed up trying to keep warm. There still wasn't a lot of interesting birds around. Only the usual that we see all year round. Except for the coots. They are here from the north by the thousands.  I only saw the one small alligator. I think since the wind was colder than the water, most of them were staying under water until later in the day.

  Our World Tuesday

Also, check out more birds at

Chesnut Park - a new bird!

Pileated woodpecker

At first I thought this was a pine warbler. Then I found out from one of my flickr contacts that this was a yellow throated vireo. After studying them both the only difference I could see is that the pine warbler has light pink legs and the vireo has dark legs. Anyway, I was excited to see this guy. I had to use my flash since he was hiding in the trees so the background was blown out but I was able to get the details in the bird.

Male anhinga posing for me.

It was a quiet morning at Chesnut Park. The weather is starting to break a little and wasn't so miserably hot. There weren't too many interesting birds there. The highlight was vireo. There are so many types of little warblers and vireos. I was excited just to get a new bird. 

  Camera Critters

Florida Botanical Gardens and a new park

One robin says to the other "Man, this Florida living is nice. I'm never going back up north."

Red bellied woodpecker says "No, this is not a berry in my mouth."

Mallard says to moorhen "Stop chasing me." Moorhen says to mallard "Then why are you running? You're much bigger than me."

Yellow rumped warbler says "I'm all alone."

The big yellow flower says "Spring is already in Florida."

The first turtle says "Last one out gets eaten by an alligator."

Spring flower says "No snow down here."

It was a couple of weekends ago that is was freezing (by Florida standards). It was the last cold weekend we had for the season. I got to the Florida Botanical Gardens around 9am and my car said it was 42 degrees outside. I thought "This is crazy. I should have stayed home in bed." But the sun was out and it warmed up pretty quick to about 60 degrees. There weren't a lot of flowers out but I did find a few that were blooming. A big flock of American robins flew by and a couple landed on a tree right in front of me.

Before I headed home, I decided to try out a new park close by the botanical gardens.  George C. McGough Nature Park in Largo is a small nature park. I had recently read that the resident owl who has lived at the center since being orphaned as a baby was missing. Someone broke into the center after closing and cut open his cage. The owl never learned to hunt for himself.  My thought is the people who did this thought they were doing the owl a favor but the owl will probably starve to death. Which is right? Set him free to starve or stay locked in a cage for life? The owl visited schools for learning programs and to teach kids about conversation and wildlife. At this point the owl has not been found.  The park sits on the intercoastal waterway and has a nice boardwalk that goes out over the water. The day I was there it was so windy. I didn't see any birds at all on the whole walk. Only some turtles and flowers. I'll have to give the park another try soon.

Below is an attempt to record a cardinal singing.

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

Also, check out more bird pictures at:

Rainy morning in a cemetery

Blue jay sitting on a snag.

Dove sitting on a grave marker.

Eagle sitting on the nest.

A pair of pileated woodpeckers sitting on a tree.

Pileated woodpecker sitting on a utility pole.

Two weekends ago we had nasty weather all weekend.  Saturday morning I woke up to dark gray skies. I checked the weather on line and it looked like I had until sometime around lunch before the rain hit. I decided to head down to the St. Petersburg cemetery to check on the eagle's nest. Only one of the eagles were present sitting on the nest. There were two other people there that had also stopped by. They both had heard there were babies but they were not big enough to see yet. Even though the other eagle did not show up while I was there, I saw several other birds. Three pileated woodpeckers stopped by all at one time. That's the most I have seen together. Two stayed together and the other was close by. After waiting around for over an hour for the other eagle, I decided to leave and head to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary before the rain hit. 

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

Also, check out more bird pictures at