Shorebirds and Seabirds on Gandy beach

A little sandwich tern flying in to hang with the bigger royal terns.

Three smaller black terns with royal terns. All of these black terns were at various stages of molting.

Juvenile skimmer. This is the first time I've seen a young skimmer outside of the skimmer colony at Redington Shores beach. There were a few of them on Gandy beach.

Bye, bye.

Black tern preening.

I stopped by Gandy beach on the way home from work. It's pretty close by. The sun was going down so there wasn't much activity going on. All of the birds were getting ready for bed. Most were already sleeping and the rest were bathing or preening. There were only a few black terns on the beach even though I've heard there had been hundreds of them there recently. I'm not sure how long they'll stay. They don't live here year round.  Another quiet night so I headed home.

Check out more birds at

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.

A rare black tern sighting

Royal and sandwich terns hanging out together.

Sandwich terns taking a bath.

Black tern

Black tern turning from breeding (all black color) to non-breeding color.

Another black tern that was in full non-breeding color.

Short video of terns taking a bath.

I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were a few black terns on the Gandy bridge beach. It's fairly rare to see them in the Tampa bay area. They only come through here for a short time in the summer. Since I work close to the bridge, I stopped over there on my way home from work on one of the nights were it wasn't pouring down rain. There were large amounts of terns on the beach (when a dog wasn't chase them off the beach). I could only find a few black terns mixed in with other terns but I didn't see any that were in full black breeding color. Most of them were just changing feathers. I'm going to keep looking for that all black tern though.

I attached a short video of some terns bathing. I always like watching them swimming around in the water.

Terns getting ready for bed.

Royal tern being lazy. I probably could have stepped over him.

 I think they were watching a tennis match.

Sandwich tern with dinner.

Sandwich terns were taking a bath.

"If I just put my face in."

Royal tern flyby.

While I was hanging out with the skimmers, I walked around the other parts of the beach. The sun was an hour away from going down and I think the terns hanging out on the beach were getting ready for bed. All of the most common terns in the area were there: least, royal and sandwich. They were all hanging out together with a few laughing gulls mixed in. It's always fun to watch them take a bath. Although, taking a sandy bath does not sound good to me.

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.

Check out more birds at

Fort Desoto birds (and a fish too).

Ruddy turnstone missing a foot.

Royal terns making a fuss (with a few laughing gulls in the background).

Another ruddy turnstone with some wire on his foot. He took off right when I took this.

Willet strolling the beach.

Yum, sheepshead fish. This seems to be a common fish caught on the Fort Desoto fishing pier.

Another trip to Fort Desoto Park beach. There will be tons more of these this summer. It was a cool sunny day and hubby's family was in town for a visit so we headed to our favorite spot. A long walk down the beach to the fishing pier was full of gulls and shorebirds. Mostly the usual laughing gulls and willets. I was bragging about how every time I go to the fishing pier I see dolphins. Of course, this time we walked the pier for an hour and saw zero dolphins. They'll never believe me now. There were very few pelicans there but the fisherman were catching a lot of fish. Mostly sheepshead (we asked a fisherman what they were all catching). Maybe dolphins and pelicans don't like that kind of fish. I don't think I would either, but I'm picky about fish.

Shorebirds on the causeway

Young royal tern making a racket.

First year least tern that's been banded. I couldn't see the numbers on these bands.

Another least tern with only one band.

Marbled godwit.

Cute little plover.

The Courtney Campbell Causeway is starting to get an influx of different shorebirds. I stopped by there after work one day last week when it was about to rain so there wasn't too many people on the small beach on the Clearwater side. Lots of young birds there that aren't in full adult colors yet. The least tern's beak will turn yellow after it's first year. Migration season is starting so I'm going to try and hit this little beach and Gandy beach after work for the next couple of weeks to see if I can find some different birds. I heard common terns and gull-billed terns hanging around so I'm going to try and find them.

Skywatch Friday - Storm at the pier

I headed over to Redington Shores one day last week after work to see how the baby skimmers were growing. It started out sunny but then the storms moved in not long after I had gotten there. It's been raining every day lately. At this point there weren't too many people on the beach. The shorebirds and pelicans were having a nice quiet time.

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

Oystercatcher couple giving me the eye.

Parent royal tern feeding it's baby.

Young royal tern.

These guys stayed close together. I'm guessing it's a royal tern family. One of the parents is in the back with the bright orange beak. The 3 up front look like first year terns. They make a nice family.

Action at the fishing pier

As usual, dolphins were everywhere at the fishing pier.


Snowy egrets fighting over bait fish territory.

Sandwich tern in flight.

Royal tern in flight. The above sandwich tern has a black beak with a yellow tip. The royal tern has an orange beak. When the royal tern is not flying, it looks like it has a toupee on his head.

A quick stop at the Fort Desoto fishing pier provided a lot of sun but not too many birds. I'm not sure why the fishing piers are surrounded by so much bait fish. It does bring in the terns and gulls. They were all flying around the pier and snatching the bait fish. The usual dolphins were also swimming around. It was sunny and hot so I did not stay too long. I headed down to the beach for a swim with the hubby.