Chesnut Park birds & an alligator too.

I think this is a red bellied woodpecker. Cobb, can you confirm?

Another grebe. I'm seeing these ducks everywhere now so they must be migrating in for the winter.

One of the resident bald eagles that live at the park. He was very far away and off the beaten path. I probably would not have seen this guy if it wasn't for a couple of audubon members who were at the boat ramp boardwalk and showed him to me through a scope. They were nice enough to tell me which path to take to get a better view. This was still highly cropped with my 500mm lens.

I heard an osprey calling but couldn't find him. Finally, I realized he was right over my head in a pine tree.

Coot and reflection in the reeds.

I only saw the above baby alligator. Usually I see several.

After a very successful trip to Chesnut Park back in late September, I had to get back there again. I was hoping to find the kingfisher I had seen diving for fish but I couldn't find him on this trip. I did, however, manage to find a bald eagle with the help of some great Pinellas county birders. I got to the park early, around 8:30, which is early for me. I headed straight for the boat ramp boardwalk and ran into some birders watching an eagle with a scope. We all chatted for a while and swapped favorite park stories. It was a great morning even if I didn't see any deer. Great deer sighting there is one of my goals. I think this may become one of my new favorite places to walk. At least for now.

Osprey fights for his fish - My World Tuesday

I thought a recent trip to the Roosevelt Wetlands by work was going to be disappointing. I stopped by after work and there wasn't much there. As the sun was going down and I had decided to leave, I heard an osprey making a lot of noise. He was flying across the lake with a small fish in his talons. I then realized that 2 blackbirds were chasing him. It amazes me that these smaller birds are brave enough to go after the osprey to get that little fish. They chased him for about a minute and then gave up. The osprey finally landed on a nearby dead tree and ate his little fish quickly. I noticed later that I managed to get a faint full moon in the top of the 3rd picture.

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Nature's best fishermen

Dolphins weren't the only animals feeding at the Fort Desoto fishing pier. Pelicans and cormorants were out feeding as well. There were so many bait fish swimming around the pier that the pelicans barely had to dive for them. They just sort of hopped up a few feet and dove down. They were filling their pouches quickly. I watched the above cormorant for a few minutes and he just kept diving down and getting a fish. I guess he can't swallow the fish under water. He would come up for a few seconds, swallow and then go back down again. He was coming up over and over again with a fish.  Even the fishermen seemed to be successful that day.

Jumping dolphins at Fort Desoto

Yes, we could have stayed on the couch all afternoon watching sports on tv. But it was just too nice outside. So we decided to head to Fort Desoto. After eating our picnic lunch, Brett stayed with the beach chairs while I walked down to the fishing pier. He figures if he can't watch sports he might as well nap. Right when I got on the pier I saw several dolphins jumping out of the water. Really jumping out. I've never seen them do that. They usually just swim around under the pier. There were at least 3 of them together jumping around. They put on quite a show. Everyone was going crazy. This was a big dolphin sighting day. There were tons of them swimming around the pier. That was definitely worth getting off the couch for. 

Weird clouds in the backyard - Skywatch Friday

These are some pictures I took in my backyard a couple of weeks ago. It didn't rain that night but it looked like it would storm pretty good. The sun was peaking out around the clouds just before it went down.  Below is another picture of my neighborhood osprey with the pink and orange clouds behind him. The last picture I took standing on my dock looking down the channel right before the sunset. The weird clouds cast an unusual reflection in the water.

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Lots of animals at Carillon Park.

Lots of turtles in the lake at Carillon Park.  Now that it hasn't rained in a while the water is really low. There were turtles all along the edge of the lake.

Limpkin giving me the eye.

Green heron walking along the railing.

Cute bunny on the sidewalk eating some grass.

Blue jay in the tree before sunset.

This looks precarious but there are metal bars along certain parts of  the lake. This was taken just before sunset.

Opsrey sitting on a palm tree with a sliver of the moon behind him.

One last trip to Carillon Park before the time change and it's dark after work. It's a small lake surrounded by office buildings. There's an amazing amount of wildlife there considering it has office buildings and a hotel all along the lake. Since the weather had cooled off a bit there were tons of joggers out on the boardwalk. I didn't see any small migrant birds, only water birds. I might have to try and get over there for a quick walk during lunch when the weather gets really cold (under 70 degrees).

Non bird things at Circle B Bar Reserve - My World Tuesday

I was disappointed in the alligator count during my recent visit. I only saw this small one. I had heard a really big one had been sitting on the trail recently but I never saw it. It might have still been too hot for them to come out of the water.

I found these tiny frogs sitting on a small palm tree right on the trail.  This frog was smaller than my thumb.

This frog was on the same tree as the above but was a little greener and bigger. I'm thinking he's an older version of the one above? They both have the white stripe down their sides.

There were a lot of these spiders everywhere at the park. Since there hasn't been any rain for a while there were big spider webs all along the trail. They were spread out across the trail just over my head. It was a little creepy walking underneath them.

Still a lot of butterflies at the park. This one looks like his wing has had a rough time.

There are lots of other animals at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland besides birds. Big spiders were everywhere. I just tried to pay attention where I was walking around trees so I wouldn't walk into any webs. Besides lots of the above, there are wild hogs, otters and coyotes. All of which I have not seen there yet. I hear the wild hogs come out at dusk so I won't be hanging around there after dark. There's also the usual raccoons and snakes as well but I have seen those there.

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