Birds of Davis Islands

Female grackle sitting on an abandoned boat.

The usual willets are always hanging out around the jetty.

The oystercatchers were pretty skittish. They would not let me get too close.

Spotted sandpiper.

A tern sitting on some type of buoy or anchor.

Nothing unusual was found on my trip to the Davis Islands yacht basin. Just the boring ole oystercatchers, willets and terns. It's still too hot to see anything good but soon the migrating birds will be coming through in bigger numbers and before you know it the eagles will back. I'm counting down the days for when it's no longer hot and the fun winter birds are here. It's only about 100 more days, give or take 10.

Check out more birds at

Weekend in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

Early in the night before dark I took this picture of the moon coming up over the palm tree in our front yard.

Orange blossoms on our tree. I wish I could can the smell and add it to the blog, like a "scratch and sniff here".  Our backyard smells so good right now.

Lots of mallards hanging around in the channel.  Soon we should start seeing baby ducks.

I see this little bird every month or so hanging around my neighbor's dock. It's always alone. I think it's a spotted sandpiper. I spotted it late Saturday afternoon and ran out to take a picture.

The hooded merganser that's been hanging around the channel was seen again this weekend. I wonder if it will migrate back up north. Should be leaving soon if it does.

This is my version of the super moon, taken on Saturday night. Every twenty years the moon rotates closest to the earth and was suppose to be brighter and bigger than normal.

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

A week from the dining room window

Last Wednesday night I came home from work and peaked out the dining room window. I was expecting to see the osprey sitting on my neighbor's sailboat mast but instead there was a green heron on the boat.

I think he saw me taking his picture. He stood up and posed.

Thursday night I came home to pouring rain. I peaked out the dining room window again and saw a blue heron standing on the boat. He didn't stay long.


Saturday morning I woke up and saw that the green heron was on the boat again.

Sunday afternoon I looked out and saw a big log floating in front of our dock. It had a small shorebird sitting on it. It was about to rain so I quickly ran outside to get a picture. It's a spotted sandpiper. We had one hanging around our neighbor's dock last summer for a few weeks. He stayed for a couple of hours and then the tide took the pole out of our channel and he floated out with it.