Celery Field variety of birds - Skywatch Friday

I parked along side of the road at the celery fields in Sarasota and the above was circling overhead.  Having a "turkey" vulture circle around you is almost like celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't think turkey vultures get the credit they deserve for being "cool" birds. They look great when they are flying high up in the sky. They look creepy when there's a group of them hanging out on the side of the road.  I did have a good visit to the celery fields the week of Thanksgiving and I'm going to try and get back before Christmas.

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This red shouldered hawk couple sat on the light fixture the entire time I was there.

Any id on this would be great. At first I thought it was a palm warbler which are common here but there's no hint of yellow.  Could it be a hermit thrush? That's the closest I could find on Whatbird.com.

Flock of anhingas flying by.

Grackle can't read.

The above is a yellowlegs. Not sure if it's a greater or lesser. They look alike.

I finally see a kildeer and didn't even know it. The sun was going down and I wanted to get a picture of the shorebirds sleeping. I didn't see the kildeer in the upper left corner until later when I uploaded the pictures. The picture is extremely cropped. I can't believe that little bird snuck into my picture and didn't let me know he was there. There was a small flock of shorebirds together and he must have been hiding in them.

Many faces of the neighborhood kingfisher.

This little bird of prey is so tiny. Not as tiny as a blue-gray gnatcatcher but much smaller than the hawk or osprey that hangs out in our channel. It's a she. The female kingfisher has the rust color around the chest. It would be nice to see a male in the neighborhood but so far I've only seen a female. She tends to hang out on our dock or our neighbor's dock. Occasionally, on the weekends I can hear her chattering and I peak out the window to see her sitting there. She must be a migratory bird since I only see her in the winter. Kingfishers are very skittish birds and don't hang around when people are present. Any of the pictures I have taken in our channel have been through a window. The second I walk outside she is gone. Other birds will hang around for a while watching me take their picture. All of the above were taken on Thanksgiving weekend. The picture below was taken last winter. I wonder if it's the same bird. The rust on the bottom is not all the way across but she might have grown that in this past summer.

Spoonbill party at Celery Fields. - My World Tuesday

I found this group of roseate spoonbills hanging around the Celery Fields pond on my 2nd trip there. My first trip several weeks ago was not successful. I got there early Saturday morning and found very little there. I decided to go back late in the afternoon and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I made that trip. The Celery Fields in Sarasota was just that, a celery farm from the early 1920's until some time in the 1990's. The Sarasota Audubon is now working with Sarasota county on restoring 80+ acres to natural wetlands. The nice thing about this area is that you can cheat on the exercise thing. No hiking 2 miles to get to the lake. There are roads all around the ponds and you can drive from pond to pond and just get out and take pictures.

Spoonbills aren't rare in central Florida but they aren't as common as other birds such as ibis or great egrets. I was recently thinking I hadn't seen many around lately. When you find a group together they are fun to watch. It was late in the day so the above group was winding down and preening. Several kept trying to sleep. A few were still trying to get that last bite before dark. It looks like there's a juvenile in the 2nd picture from the bottom. The one on the right was very pale pink and a little smaller than the others.  I have more stories from my trip coming up later.

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Quiet Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto

Dowitchers trying to sleep.

Great blue heron goes flying by.

Looks like a black tern in non-breeding colors. This was the only one I saw in flock of laughing gulls.

Herring gull.

Flock of skimmers and sandwich terns. I think the black tern was in this crowd.  Someone came walking by and scared them.

Skimmer flying by.

A recent Sunday afternoon at Fort Desoto was pretty quiet. Even though the peak tourist season is over there were still a lot of people hanging around the north beach. I didn't see anything different or unusual there on this trip. I did see a bald eagle fly by from very far away. It was too far to even try and crop but it was the first time I had seen one fly over the beach. Now that the weather is absolutely perfect I'll be headed there a lot more.

Backyard visitors over Thanksgiving weekend.

I came home from running errands and the above juvenile red shoulder hawk was sitting on my roof. I see lots of adults in our neighborhood but this is the first time I've seen a juvenile here. He watched me drive into the garage. I ran inside and got my camera and was excited to see him still sitting there. I took a few pictures and then he took off. I hope he stays for a while.

Later that afternoon I saw him sitting on my neighbor's fence looking around.

A little while later he was sitting in my neighbor's yard. I grabbed my camera and snuck out the back door to take a few pictures.

I realized he was eating a bug.

Last winter we had a hooded merganser couple hanging around our channel for a couple of weeks.  Last weekend I saw a male. He's migrating through from somewhere up north. I ran out on the dock and took this picture. He stayed pretty far away. You can tell he's not used to people. Anytime I walk out on the dock the mallards always come swimming up quacking for food. I hope there's a female with him. I didn't see one last weekend but she could show up.

Blue heron looking for food under our neighbor's dock. The tide was really low last weekend.

Sunshine Skyway fishing pier - Skywatch Friday

Another trip to the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier. The weather is just too nice not to be outside. I was still surprised to see so few pelicans out flying around. I guess they just don't like this particular pier. There were a lot of other birds around though. The above egrets were sitting on top of the bait fish shop on the pier.

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I think I was half way down the pier when I took this picture of the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

This great egret was trying to hide his catch.

At the end of the fishing pier, someone must have started feeding the gulls because they all started flying around and acting crazy.

I think this juvenile herring gull must have gotten this fish from a fisherman. Either he stole it or it was given to him.

Adult herring gull posing for me.

Duck pond near Fort Desoto

I'm going with a ring necked duck. At first I thought it was scaup but the presences of the white ring on the beak says it should be a ring neck. Although, you can't see his neck so who knows.

Redhead. I think this is the first time I've seen one.

Lots of sleeping ducks in the afternoon.

My first Northern Shoveler. This is a female. They resemble mallards but with a really big bill.

I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were a lot of migrating ducks at the duck ponds in Tierre Verde before you drive into Fort Desoto. I was near there one afternoon and stopped by to see if I could spot anything.  There were a lot of usual moorhens and coots but I did notice the redheads and ring necked.  Most of them were sleeping on the other side of the pond but a few floated over by the sidewalk.  I can't believe I found the northern shoveler. She was hiding in the reeds but came out for a few seconds. I hate that I didn't get a front picture of her big bill. I'll have to check the pond again next time we head to the beach.