Bald eagle's nest at Honeymoon Island

Bald eagle soaring by.

Flying past me through the pine trees.

This one still has some lunch on his beak.

Bringing home the bacon (or fish).

Almost home. The fish looked like it was half eaten already.

Finally home.

Sitting on the nest.

The rangers at Honeymoon Island say the eagle couple have 2 babies on the nest. This time last year the babies were big enough to see their heads popping out. This year they are a little later. I'll go back in another 2 weeks. When I got there one parent was sleeping on the nest and one was sleeping on a snag close by. I decided to walk around the park for a while and check back later. Not too far from the nest, I saw one flying by and headed back to the nest. I got there right as the eagle was flying back with a fish. The nest is about a mile and a half walk from the parking lot. The nest is closed off way more than the standard 500 feet to keep people from getting too close. It's good for the eagles to have their space but you'll need binoculars to see them. I had my 500mm lens and the above are highly cropped.

Hopefully, I'll have some baby pictures soon.

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Windy day at Honeymoon Island

Is this a caspian tern or common tern?  They both look alike. Anyway, it's fairly rare to see one here. Too many laughing gulls around.

Black vulture posing on snag.

This looks like a pine warbler. It was the closest thing in my Audubon guide.

Woodpecker hanging upside down.

 

I think this is a juvenile ring-billed gull (adult below). There were a handful of ring billed gulls hanging around on the beach. This one was eating the insides of the conch.

Adult ring billed gull. I like the way their feet matches their beak.

Kiteboarder at Honeymoon Island.  Looking down to Clearwater beach.

Two weekends ago it was very windy. I decided to hit the nature trail at Honeymoon Island to see what was going on with the eagles there. I had heard they had 2 baby chicks but they were still too small to show their heads. It didn't feel windy on the inside wooded trail but I decided to head north along the mangrove trail to the north end beach. The wind was blasting. There were only a few gulls hanging around, no other shorebirds.  There wasn't a large variety of birds on the trail. I think the weather had blown them away. There are tons of osprey, more on those later. I decided to hit the beach before I headed home but when I got there it was just too windy (and I was hungry) so I didn't stay long. The rocky beach section was full of live conchs. The gulls were feeding off of them and a few shell seekers were looking around.  A few kiteboarders were out and they were moving fast across the water.

When I got home my husband said "Weren't you cold?" I said "No, wimp."

Kingfisher pays another visit

More pictures of my neighborhood female belted kingfisher. She's so cute, I can't stop taking pictures of her.  It had started to rain a couple of weekends ago and the last 2 pictures of her are in the rain sitting on my dock. All taken through the bedroom window. I'm not sure when she'll head back up north for the summer, maybe March?  I'm going to miss her visits.

Unusual backyard visitors - Skywatch Friday

Ring billed gull on our dock. We usually only get laughing gulls in our neighborhood.

Turkey vulture sitting on our dock.  This is the 2nd time I've seen one on our dock in 7 years.

The tide was so low the muck was showing on the sides of the channel. The turkey vulture found something to dig out.

Pelican on our neighbor's dock. We have never gotten pelicans in our channel. In the last week I've seen one hanging around.

Posing for me.

Eastern phoebe sitting on my fence. I've never seen one of these in our backyard.

These ibis aren't unusual. Actually, there's always a flock somewhere in the neighborhood. One night they were sitting on the lamp post down the street. I took this through the kitchen window.

Snowy egret sitting on my dock. I see these every once in a while in the channel.

Last weekend was a perfect weekend. I was in and out of the house all weekend but when I was in I was always looking out the windows for any visitors. We had several different ones this time. We don't usually get pelicans and eastern phoebes. It was a nice mix of birds. It was very windy and that might have been what brought in the new birds to our channel. I also saw 2 pair of hooded mergansers but they stayed down at the other end of the channel and I didn't even try to take a picture that far away.  Sunday before sunset I went out and snapped the above picture. It was nice outside but it got cold fast when the sun went down.

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Hanging with a movie star.

Winter giving me a big smile!

Winter showing me his missing flipper.

Winter's prosthetic tail. He doesn't wear it all of the time.

Panama and Winter playing. Panama was grabbing Winter's tail.

Winter from under the tank.

Winter playing with a toy.

A resident otter.

I had Martin Luther King Day off. Of course, it rained. I had to get out of the house so I headed over to Clearwater beach to visit Winter, the dolphin who lost his flipper as a baby years ago. There was a movie telling his story recently made with him starring as himself that is to be released this coming October. The movie people built a nice big outdoor dolphin pool at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium that Winter and Panama share together. The rest of the aquarium was indoors but I stood outside in the drizzle for an hour watching Winter play in his outdoor pool.

There are other animals there as well. Lots of turtle with missing feet. Right now they have a turtle hospital set up with turtles that are sick and beached themselves from the cold weather. Last winter the aquarium nursed back to health and released hundreds of cold stunned turtles. It's already happening again this year. If you are ever in the Tampa Bay area, stop by and hang out with a movie star. You won't get his autograph, although you may get splashed by him.

http://www.seewinter.com/

An hour in a cemetery before sundown.

Red bellied woodpecker on the side of a utility pole.

There's a flock of wild parrots that live around the cemetery.

They were looking down at my like "lady what are you doing?"

There also seems to be a pair of raccoons that live in the cemetery.

I couldn't tell what he was chewing on. He wouldn't let me get close.

American kestrel on top of large snag.

The sun was about to go down and the kestral was trying to sleep. (Moon in the background)

I finally saw the eagle sticking it's head out of the nest.

I was able to leave work a little early on the Friday before MLK day and decided to head to the cemetery in St. Petersburg where the eagle's nest was. I had a little more than an hour before the sun was going down and I had to head back to Tampa for dinner. I got there and no eagles were present. I thought "maybe he'll be back with a fish soon." No luck the entire hour. I didn't even see anything on the nest until I was leaving and looked back out of the window of the car and saw a head pop up. I stopped and took the last picture. I've since heard the babies should be hatching some time this week so I'm going to have to make another stop soon. My hour wasn't wasted. It's amazing the amount of wildlife in a cemetery. I guess they don't get a lot of traffic through there on a regular basis although while I was there several cars stopped by to check on the eagles.

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Birds at Homosassa Springs

A volunteer was feeding the pelicans.

The above pelican had that "Don't come near my nest." look on it's face.

There are 3 permanently injured eagles that live at the park.

Lot's of wild storks come in to get a free handout.

We found a lot of wood ducks swimming around the river near the manatees.

Sandhill crane taking a nap. A volunteer told me that years ago they had a sandhill crane that had been hurt brought to the park for rehabilitation. The crane ended up staying and attracking a wild mate. They had babies and there is now 3 generations of sandhills that live at the park. They could leave anytime they want but they still hang around all year.

How often do you see a red shouldered hawk (left) and red tailed hawk (right) sitting together on a branch? The red tailed was missing a wing.

Besides manatees, the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park has lots of birds. Both wild and rehabilitating permanent residents. You can get really close up to some of them. There's a lagoon in the middle that has flamingos, both white and brown pelicans, storks, swans and sandhill cranes that all hang out together. The brown pelicans were working on their nests while we were there so soon there will be babies to view up close. On a visit last spring I saw a handful of baby swans. There are a lot of volunteers at the park that can answer any questions and told me all kinds of good stories about the birds there. You can also find a lot of wild birds in the park. We saw pileated woodpeckers and warblers as well. I think I'm going to head back in early spring to see any babies that are at the park.