My new bird feeder - Skywatch Friday

"That crazy lady staring at me through the bedroom window thinks I can't get to her bird feeder. I'm going to show her."

"This is way too easy."

"Oh, wait, I think I might fall."

Finally, a bird. But it's just an ole blue jay. He'll probably scare way all of the small cute birds.

Ibis on our neighbor's dock in the rain.

Our resident night heron comes to visit as the sun goes down.

Perfect ending to the weekend.

Yes, I made it way to easy for those squirrels. I put the bird feeder too close to the branch. I'm going to try and move it farther out and lower it. I might try and find something to put over the top so they can't slide down so easily. I know, squirrels always figure out a way. At one point I had one squirrel on the feeder and 3 others on the ground below it chowing down on the seed that had fallen. Any suggestions?

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Please don't shoot the deer, except with a camera!

Now I know where some of the deer hang out. At least for the last two trips to Chesnut Park. As I drove into the park early on a recent Saturday morning, I saw them wandering around in a wooded field. I parked and walked into the field which is heavily shaded. I didn't get too close but eventually the deer wandered pretty close over to me. At one point I had to walk back because they had gotten to close for me to get any shots. With no sun it was a challenge to get them but I used my flash and cranked up the ISO. I think it was on 800 here. I watched them eat for a while and then headed over to the boardwalk.

Birds at the St. Pete Yacht Club

Pelican in front of the pier.

Which one doesn't belong? There's a small ruddy turnstone 3rd from the left. I guess he figured there was safety in all of those laughing gulls.

At the boat ramp. Some guys dumped their bait fish in the parking lot before driving off.

Laughing gulls flying in for the bait fish fest.

You can usually find green herons around marinas. We have several that hang around in the channels by my house.

Great blue heron posing.

I have a friend who has a key to get into the gate at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club so an after work photo walk got scheduled pretty quick. We headed down there right after work and had about an hour and a half before it got dark. The docks there sit across the lagoon from the St. Pete Pier (in the first picture). It was neat seeing everything from a new angle. I had never been out on those docks before. We saw the usual water birds there. Lots of pelicans, great blue herons, great egrets and tons of laughing gulls. They were pretty quiet and getting ready for bed since the sun was about to go down. We had a lot of fun and headed back to our cars well after dark. I almost got a parking ticket from running out of meter time but we got back right as he was writing me a ticket and gave me a warning instead. Those guys are so nice!

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Kapok Park after work

Little blue heron standing on the boardwalk rail. He didn't want to move. I finally walked around him.

"Yea! The kingfishers are back. Still haven't seen the one in my neighborhood yet but it's still early. Not a great shot because they are really skittish here.

Boring ole blue jay watching me.

Hawk flyby.

My first alligator sighting at this park.

Cute caterpillar.

Another walk around Kapok Park after work. It's getting dark earlier so I only had a little over an hour before the sun went down behind the trees. I was hoping to see the red tailed hawk again but could only find a red-shouldered hawk soaring overhead. Two kids on skateboards asked me if I had seen the alligator swimming in the middle of the lake. I'm thinking to myself  "In the 3 years I've been coming here I've never seen an alligator." I said to them "No, I haven't." They were so excited to point him out as he swam right towards the dock. It's amazing how alligators are so mesmerizing to kids. I don't know how long he's been in the lake. I always thought the baby duck count never seems to go down here like at other lakes. Maybe he's fairly new.

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Mount Rushmore and Needles Highway - Skywatch Friday

"The heads" (as the locals call them) from inside the park.

From the trail that goes underneath the heads.  You can get pretty close.

The main entrance. We were trying to guess the state flags without looking at the state (at least the southern ones anyway). I must have slept through that class.

The view from the parking deck at Mount Rushmore. It was just starting to cloud up.

Looking over at Needles Highway.

Driving through Needles Highway. It was a tight squeeze at some points.

Going through the tunnel. There were several of these that we passed through.

One last post from my trip to South Dakota.

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Baby Limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve

"This looks really yummy Mom."

"Hey, wait, that's my bite."

"Let's go get more snails Mom."

"It's break time. Mom's tired of dunking her head under water for snails."

"Look at my cool wings. Soon I'll be flying"

"For now I'll just have to walk."

I had heard there were baby limpkins at Circle B Bar Reserve while I was on my trip to South Dakota. It seems late for babies but better late than never. I couldn't wait to get back and go looking for them. I'm not sure how old they were when I took these, maybe 3 to 4 weeks old. They grow up fast. I walked down to Wading Bird trail and didn't see them at first. Mom was in the water looking for snails and I think the 2 babies were hiding in the nearby bushes. All of sudden out pops mom and the babies on to the trail. She had brought them out to feed them on the side. After a quick bite, they headed back into the bushes along the water. About half an hour later they came back out with another snail. There were originally 4 babies and now it's down to 2. There's lots of alligators in water at the park. Hopefully, the last 2 will make it. 

Nothing new at Circle B Bar Reserve

Black bellied whistling ducks says "Oh no, here come the photographers".

"Get my good side".

Red bellied woodpecker says "I'll stop for 4 seconds so you can take the picture. Then I'm back to banging on this dead tree."

Great blue herons says "I caught one this big."

Red shoulder hawk says "I'd be king of the jungle here if it wasn't for that annoying eagle."

Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland was calling my name. I hadn't been there since mid-May. It was still miserably hot there at the end of September but I had heard there baby limpkins there. There's no better reason than that to drive 50 minutes across central Florida. The reserve was pretty quiet. It's still a little early for many of the fall birds so there wasn't too many photographers out there. I didn't see the eagles flying around. I saw very few small migraters such as warblers. But, I did find the baby limpkins. They were so cute! More on those later.

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