Canadian geese by work

"Head's up guys, here comes someone with a camera"

"I'll do my mean body shake and scare her away."

"Maybe if I flap my wings she'll leave."

"Forget it, she's not leaving. Just keep eating."

"There's good bugs over here."

I had read on Pinellas birds that there was a Canadian geese sighting in the cemetery down the street from my office. I threw my camera in the car and was able to drive through there after work recently. It's a small cemetery right off a busy road.  I drove around a little bit and quickly found the flock. They were so close to the road that I didn't even get out of my car. I just snapped the above quickly and left. I don't know if they'll continue south or stay here for the winter. I'll check back in a few weeks to see if they are still there.

  camera critters

My neighborhood kingfisher

"There's that crazy lady again. Staring at me through that window. It's been months since I've seen her. I bet she misses me."

"She can't have any of my fish. I work too hard for this morsel. But I'll show her what she's missing."

"Yum, I'm going to savor this little fish."

"I move to the other dock and she's still watching me eat my lunch. Doesn't she have a life?"

"This one's a mouthful. I've got to close my eyes to fit this in my mouth."

Yeah! My winter belted kingfisher is back in my neighborhood. Finally! I've been seeing kingfishers everywhere but in my backyard. I was getting worried she wouldn't show up this year. She's been hanging around our channel for at least four winters. My hubby was half asleep watching tv and I was doing chores. I peeked out the bedroom window to see if anything interesting was at the bird feeder (meaning anything better than squirrels) and saw her sitting on my dock. I ran to get my camera yelling "She's back." I took several pictures of her eating a fish on our dock then she flew to my neighbor's dock. I went running into the dining room, taking the last two pictures from there. Back and forth I went running across the house as she flew back and forth around the channel for a while and then took off. I hope she's here for the winter. 

Skyway bridge - Skywatch Friday

Finally, after all these years, I get up early (5:30am) to get sunrise pictures at Fort Desoto. Did I see the sun? NO! I met my friend Pam at the east beach parking lot and we walked out to the beach in the dark together. It was suppose to be a nice morning but it was a wall of clouds. Even without the sun it was fun being out there early in the morning when the birds where just waking up and taking off and the tourist haven't arrived yet. It's still beautiful to see the Sunshine Skyway bridge from Fort Desoto in the early morning light. I want to try and get out there again to get actual sunrise pictures so I'm going to have to get used to getting up early on the weekends.

For more skyscape photography from around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

After work walk at Carillon Park

Female anhinga posing for a portrait. They love to do this.

I think this is a pine warbler.

Tricolored heron

Green heron on the boardwalk.

There's a small lake with a boardwalk around it about 5 minutes from work (and that's if I hit the one red light). I don't go there that often to look for birds since it's always busy with people jogging and walking their dogs on the boardwalk. But since it was the last week of daylight after work I stopped by for a quick walk. It was such a beautiful night, it was packed with people. I didn't see anything unusual but at least I got a good walk in before heading home. Above are a few things I saw on my walk. There's always a lot of anhingas around and they are not afraid of the joggers or dogs. They will sit on the boardwalk rail while you walk right past them. If you stop or get to close they will wave their beak at you but won't leave. I try not to get too close because I'm always afraid they'll stick me with that beak.

Sun setting on shorebirds

More skimmers getting ready for bed. The one on the left is yelling "Someone turn the lights out!"

How'd that snowy egret get in the crowd?

Looking at their reflections.

Willet's got a crab.

Marbled godwit getting a snack before dark.

I took these the last week in October. Right before the time change and it was still a little light on my way home from work. I stopped along the Courtney Campbell causeway after work to get a quick walk in before it got dark. The tide was extremely low and most of the birds were far out in the bay. I was walking around in my flip flops but they kept getting stuck in the wet sand so I finally took them off and tied them to my bag. It got dark pretty quick. I had about 45 minutes to walk around. Now I drive home in the dark until mid-March.

  Our World Tuesday

Also, check out more birds at

More shots through the bedroom window

I looked outside and saw the usual, an osprey sitting on my neighbor's dock. But wait, I looked again and realized there was also a blue heron sitting there. It was nice of the osprey to share his space. I'm sure he would not have let that little blue land if he had been munching on a fish.

I've been getting a lot of male house finches at the feeder.

Not one I've seen in my tree before. I think it's a palm warbler or pine warbler.

No, the squirrel wasn't yelling at me. I caught him yawning. I'm sure he was ready for a nap after eating all of that bird seed.

Almost dark in the backyard. All picture taken through the bedroom window. You can see how almost dead the grapefruit tree is. My hubby keeps saying we need to pull it out but it's so nice being able to see all of the birds in the tree. I couldn't see that when the tree was full of leaves all year round.

Boyd Hill on a beautiful day

There's always an anhinga sitting in this spot.

Life imitating art.

Snowy egret flying in.

Another eastern phoebe.

Based on the short bill, I'm going with a Downy Woodpecker.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve was pretty quiet on a recent Saturday morning. The few migrating birds I saw were high up in the trees and I couldn't get any shots of them. The eastern phoebe was the only one to get a little lower and sit for a portrait. I was a little disappointed  that I didn't see any raccoons, otters or alligators there. I know there are tons of them that live there but they were being scarce that morning. It was a little bit cooler and very windy. I left the house with a jacket on but had it off after my first 30 minutes there. The weather here has been perfect. Anywhere from 70 - 80 degrees and a cool wind blowing. I love this time of year. When it's sunny and 70. Sorry all you folks up north already getting snow. It's time for a visit down south.