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.

Brooker Creek Reserve - 1st visit

Some type of woodpecker. It didn't have any red on it. 

Same woodpecker as first picture.

Looking down at a row of utility poles. They seem to be a condo for vultures.

Juvenile bald eagle. It's the first time I've seen a juvenile. This picture is highly cropped from my 500mm lens. It was sitting high up on a utility pole and looked like a dark blob.

There were tons of black vultures soaring overhead.

There's a reserve in north Pinellas county called Brooker Creek Reserve. I had heard about it but I had never been there. Several weekends ago I stopped by there before going to Chesnut Park. There's up to 5 miles of trails that you can hike there. They were very well marked. I walked about 2 1/2 miles of it. I did not see very much on the trail. Mostly woodpeckers. It was very quiet. One section of the trail has a bird blind that sits just off a power line trail with a small pond in front of it. The best part was all of the vultures sitting on the utility poles. I noticed a blob sitting off by itself at the top of one pole. When I zoomed in I realized it was a juvenile bald eagle. That was the highlight of my trip.  I've heard the park has turkeys as well as all types of critter roaming including bobcats. I saw non of this. Maybe on my next trip.

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Happy Valentine's Day

This sandhill crane is wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!  Taken at Homossa Springs Wildlife Park.

Big Gulp!

My quick stop at Kapok Park did result in watching the above male anhinga gulp down his big catch. The pictures are not as sharp as I would have liked. The anhinga was across the lake from me so they are highly cropped. He kept turning his back on me as well. I think he couldn't figure out what to do with it at first. He banged it on the branch for a while. I didn't get pictures of him flipping it from off his beak into his mouth. I don't even remember seeing him do it. One minute the fish was speared on his beak and then it was going down his throat. I hope that lasted him for a while. He didn't move after that so I walked around the park.

Lots of birds at Kapok Park

Juvenile blue heron walking around in the dead reeds.

Anhinga's got lunch.

Pied grebe is shaking off the water.

Warbler posing on a branch.

Grackles and cowbirds (below) are always on the boardwalk.

There was a pretty decent variety of birds at Kapok Park in Clearwater for a Sunday afternoon. I only had a few hours and didn't want to go to far away so I stopped off at the park to walk around. There wasn't anything unusual at the park. The highlight of the visit was the above anhinga getting a fish. 

Where the shorebirds sleep - Skywatch Friday.

Shorebirds going to sleep on the causeway. The little orange legged ones are ruddy turnstones. I think the others are dunlins.

Willet trying to sleep while keeping an eye on me.

Willets and sanderlings mixed in.

Sun not quite down on the Bayside bridge.

I took this on the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

After dark, you can always find ruddy turnstones on the rocks.

The sun seems to be staying up a little bit longer now. One night last week a left work a few minutes earlier than usual and was able to stop for a half an hour along the causeway and take a few pictures. You can always find shorebirds sleeping along the Courtney Campbell causeway. The causeway is state road 60 that crosses old Tampa Bay between Clearwater and Tampa. The causeway was named for Courtney W. Campbell, U.S. Representative and member of the Florida Road Board who spearheaded efforts to ensure needed repairs and beautification of the Causeway was completed. It is listed under the Great Florida Birding Trail under SR 60. Some nights I take this road home and some nights I take the Howard Franklin bridge (Interstate 275) across the bay. I check traffic on the web to determine my route before heading home. Both routes have pelicans, osprey, gulls, shorebirds, herons, egrets and dolphins but on the causeway you can pull off onto the the access road and enjoy the view.

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Osprey at Honeymoon Island

Osprey were flying everywhere.

 

"I'm full. Want the leftovers?"

"Don't make fun of my tiny fish."

"When is Valentine's Day again?"

Osprey Trail at Honeymoon Island is full of.... wait for it.....opsrey.  Although, the best part of osprey trial is the end where the eagle's nest is. To get to the eagle's nest you have to walk by a ton of osprey. The trail is buzzing with pre-nesting osprey activity. Osprey were flying over my head non-stop. I only saw 2 nests that had osprey sitting on them. It's a little early but in the next couple of weeks there will be osprey couples all over the place. They get loud when you walk by so the trail is pretty noisy.  I'm going to try and get back there soon to see osprey babies.