Birds and Bunnies at Chesnut Park

The usual great egret standing on the boardwalk rail.

Small alligator swimming along the boardwalk.

Another titmouse shot. The park was full of them.

This bunny thinks he's hiding from me.

Bunny with an itch.

The nice thing about Chesnut park is that if there aren't a lot of birds around to take pictures of, there's always the bunnies.There used to be at least 10 hanging around the boardwalk and now I can only find two. I heard from another photographer that was there that the park "relocated" most of the bunnies. These aren't wild bunnies but pets that someone had dropped off over the years and well, you know what they say about bunnies. First there were two and then there was 10. If they get too close to the lake they may end up alligator food. 

Chesnut Park

Cool red and black spider. I've never seen one like this before.

Tufted titmouse posing for me in the tree. These little birds are so cute.

Female red winged black bird doing the splits in the reeds.

Female grackle trying to eat a snail.

Yellow warbler in a palm tree.

The bird whisperer feeding a titmouse.

On a hot sweaty morning a couple of weekends ago, I ran into Bob. He was sitting on the boardwalk that runs along the lake watching the birds. I crept up near him and watched him feed some female red winged blackbirds. We started talking and after sitting there for a while a titmouse came up and ate some seed out of his hand. It was pretty amazing watching this tiny little bird sitting on his hand. We sat there for a while and then moved on to another part of the park where I found the above yellow warbler. There wasn't too much else in the park that morning. It was just too hot. I'm going to head back there in the next couple of weeks since I've heard the migrate birds are starting to come through.



Little birds at Chesnut Park

Pied grebe looking back at me.

Male cardinal in the tree.

Female cardinal eating something on the ground.

Gray catbird. I've been seeing these everywhere lately.

Cutest tufted titmouse.

Another titmouse.

Lots of little birds at Chesnut Park recently. I didn't see any rare migrants. Only the usual above. I walked along the boardwalk at the boat ramp and hardly saw anything. Nothing but coots and moorhens in the water. Then I hit the nature trail. I found all of the above on the nature trail.  Later I stopped by the picnic area to walk along the water to see if there were any water birds around. When I headed toward the lake I walked into a wall of gnats. At first I panicked because I thought they were mosquitoes which seemed to just be coming out. When I realized they weren't biting I thought "Okay, annoying but at least no bites." Boy, where they annoying. I was covered in them within minutes. I had to cover my nose and mouth to breath. I decided it wasn't worth it and left. I still got in a two hour walk but was hoping for three. I went home instead and did much needed chores.

Birds at Chesnut Park (& a woodpecker video too)

Male anhinga sitting in his usual spot on the lake.

Tufted titmouse looking down at me. I see a lot of these at Chesnut Park.

My first black and white warbler.

The woods seem to be full of pileated woodpeckers.

I was standing on the boardwalk taking pictures of the above pileated woodpecker when I had a thought "I should take a video of him banging away." The nice thing about my new camera (Nikon D7000) is that it's really easy to flip the switch and record. I hadn't really spent any time doing that yet. After I took the video and got home I realized I was holding the camera portrait to get a long shot of the woodpecker and in the video the woodpecker is not set up right. I can't figure out a way to rotate a video. I'm assuming there's not one unless I had some high tech video editing program. Hopefully, next time I'll get it right. If you have the sound, on the howling you hear at the very beginning is another woodpecker calling to the one in the video. They get really loud in the woods.

Birds at Largo Botanical Gardens

A flash of gray goes by me. It's a tufted titmouse making a quick stop on a tree.

I'm starting to see cardinals everywhere.

Red bellied woodpecker.

Blue grey gnatcatcher.  This has to be the tiniest bird there.

This woodpecker looked slightly different than the first one. It was smaller and did not have the red on it's head. It could be a different woodpecker or an immature red bellied, although his beak looks different as well. I searched through the over 200 different species of woodpeckers and decided my head would explode before guessing this one.

A great egret doing his duty. Yes, the whole world is a toilet.

I made a recent stop to the Florida Botanical Gardens (in Largo). The morning started out cloudy and I thought I would get rained out but later the sun came out (and so did the mosquitoes and humidity). There was a good variety of birds there but I did not find any of the little migrating birds such as warblers. I also did not see a single alligator although I know there are several there. I think it's still warm and they are hiding in the water. 

Little birds at Chesnut Park

Male cardinal keeping an eye on me.

 

Female cardinal posing.

I'm guessing the above is a yellow throated warbler. I looked it up but all of these tiny birds are starting to look alike.

Caroline Wren

Tufted titmouse.

Blue jay was about to eat a bug.

The recent trip to John Chesnut park in north Pinellas county provided some small migrating birds. There were tons of little birds there but it's so hard to catch them on camera. I got a lot more little bird pictures but they were a blurry mess. Those little guys don't sit long and pose like big water birds do. Plus I was getting a neck cramp after looking up high in the trees with my camera. My goal this trip was to find a few new small birds to capture. The warbler and wren were firsts for me. I've only gotten one picture of a titmouse from earlier this spring but this one was a little better. Migrating season is still going on so I'll keep trying.

Florida Botanical Gardens

Osprey with a big nest in some kind of utility tower.

Female cardinal hiding in a tree.

Tufted titmouse. My first picture of this bird. He was hard to get hiding in the trees.

Anhinga drying off in the bushes.

Northern mockingbird.

Lots of birds out at the Botanical Gardens in Largo. It was a sunny day and starting to get hot. I knew we would go right from winter to summer. Not much of a spring this year. This was my first trip to the gardens where I did not see a single alligator. I know they are there but they must have all been hiding under the water.