A Skywatch Friday Tribute to Klaus

This past Saturday I attended a photo memorial walk for Klaus Peter. Klaus was the creator of My World Tuesday and Skywatch Friday. He passed away in August, leaving a big hole in the nature photography world in Florida. A group of his close friends put together a photo meetup at one of his favorite parks, Circle B Bar Reserve, in Lakeland Florida. We met early in the morning in the dark and hiked out to the best part of the lake to get sunrise pictures. This was my first sunrise at the park. I rarely get up that early in the morning but knew I had to do this because Klaus always said sunrise was the best time. I had to stop letting sleep get in the way of photography. After a specatular sunrise, we all headed to the nature center and watched a slide show of Klaus' nature pictures as well as funny pictures of him with his friends. There were several members of his family that came from Germany for the event.

For a beautiful post and more pictures on the event, please visit one of Klaus' close friends, Michael, to see his post.  Michael's post

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Hanging with a hawk

I don't see red tailed hawks  very often. I see red shoulder hawks in my neighborhood all the time. I had been seeing pictures of the bald eagle couple from the cemetery in St. Petersburg on one of my flickr contacts recently (Jim's eagle picture) and decided to stop by the cemetery to see if I could find them. When I got there, several other photographers were standing around talking. They had not seen the eagles come back to the nest yet so the news wasn't good. I stood there for about an hour waiting (which isn't really very long waiting for eagles to come back) and then I had to leave. The highlight of the hour was when a red tailed hawk landed in a dead snag near us. He sat there for a few minutes while a couple of mockingbirds kept trying to bother him. He got tired of them flying close to him and left. It was a dark cloudy morning but at least no rain.

Hubby's first trip to Circle B Bar Reserve

Great blue heron posing for us.

Snowy egret blowing in the wind.

Small alligator on the rocks giving me a big smile.

Eastern phoebe. I'm starting to see these everywhere.

Lots of butterflies at the park.

Hubby noticed the snake in the tree.

A couple of Sunday's ago the day started off dreary. Drizzle and wind. By noon it had cleared up and after watching tv all morning I jumped off the couch and said "I'm going to Circle B for an afternoon walk." Hubby said "I think I'll go with you." I said "What, you don't want to stay home and watch football and golf all day?" So off we went. The reserve is about 45 minutes from our house. It was a gorgeous day. Cool, mostly sunny and a little windy. On the way there I talked about all of the things we would see. I think he jinxed me. I talked about all of the big alligators we'd see (we only saw 2 tiny ones). I talked about looking for the baby limpkins (no sign of them). I talked about birds migrating through (almost none in sight). I talked about the eagles rebuilding their nest (no eagles). I said we had to keep a look out for the bobcat that everyone had been seeing (no bobcat). Oh well, at least we had a nice two hour walk. The highlight was the snake. And he was surprised at how many butterflies were there. They were flying everywhere. I think I might leave him home on my next trip.

Our World Tuesday 

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Hawk in the backyard

I knew something was going on when my cockatiels flew off their cage screaming. I peaked out the window and saw a hawk on my neighbor's fence. It's funny how the osprey flies up and sits on the sailboat mast and my birds look at him with indifference but when a hawk flies in front of the window they go crazy. Do they really know that the osprey only eats fish?  The hawk scared away all of the birds that were at my feeder so I went outside to scare away the hawk (with my camera in hand). The hawk did not want to leave. He let me get pretty close. I think this is a juvenile red shouldered hawk. We have a lot of adult red shoulders in the neighborhood.

As I was standing in my backyard waving my arms trying to shoo away the hawk, I see something flying towards me. It's a great blue heron. I think it had planned on landing on a dock in our corner but saw me standing there and kept on going.

This little guy was not scared off by the hawk. He let me stand under the tree and take his picture. I think this is a palm warbler.

A male house finch was also sitting in the tree.

Gandy beach on my way home

Skimmers stretching and preening. Getting ready for bed.

Laughing gulls taking a bath.

Sandwich tern flyby.

Little plovers all hunkered down. This was taken far away. They were hiding behind the barricaded area.

I'm not sure what this is. I think it's a least sandpiper. There were a few there bathing right before dark.

Skimmers flying over the beach.

One of my last chances to stop by Gandy beach on my way home from work. Next week it will be dark when I leave work. I got there just before the sun went down behind the trees. The birds immediately went to work getting ready for bed. They were all bathing, preening or stretching.  Many of the birds were behind the concrete barricades that block the end of the beach. There used to be signs that say "No driving past this point." but now there are signs saying "No Trespassing." It's just a tiny little spot before the beach turns into rock and seawall. Hopefully that will keep people out and the birds can rest.

I hate it when the time changes. I'm sure most people do. Why does the traffic get so bad in the dark? Now my quick 25 minute drive home from work will become at least 45 minutes. And I don't get to see anything going on in the bay. At least in the summer if I"m stuck in traffic on the bridge I can watch the pelicans and osprey fly by and look for dolphins. Now all I can do is stare at the car in front of me. Oh well, mid March will come soon enough.

View from the house - Skywatch Friday

I took this a couple of weeks ago when the moon was going down in the backyard. When I opened the blinds while I was getting ready for work early in the morning  and saw this I ran outside and snapped a quick shot in my robe.

After driving home from work in the pouring rain, I pulled up in the driveway to this. We've been getting a lot of rainbows lately.

Another shot from my driveway.

Sunset in my backyard.

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First fall marbled godwit sighting.

I saw this marbled godwit all alone on Gandy beach last week and thought "I haven't seen one of these in a while." I guess they're back for the winter. Last winter I saw them around Gandy bridge beach and all along the Courtney Campbell Causeway. This guy was by himself at the time but usually I see several together. I love their pink toothpick like beaks. He let me watch him for a while and then when a car pulled up on the beach he flew off.