It was really cold in early February. I was headed to Fred Howard Park for a cold walk and didn’t think I would see many birds but I threw my camera in the back anyway. I saw a “gulp” of cormorants out on the rocks along the causeway and after my walk I stopped on the way out to shoot them all resting. The beautiful ring billed gull was a bonus. Cormorants were flying back and forth and another ring billed gull flew in. My walk started out on the tiny beach at the park. I walked the little parking lot loop and then started out for the long causeway ..read more

An early morning transport had me driving an injured red shoulder hawk and a black vulture from the Raptor Center in Brandon to Penny, the rehabber, in south St. Pete. I didn’t get a picture of the vulture. He was in a box and was jumping around a lot so didn’t want to open the box. I think he was being released soon. A few days later I got an emergency call to see if I could pick up an injured eagle that was being rescued.  It was only 15 minutes from my house so I jumped in the car and met George from Birds In Helping Hands who had just grabbed the eagle. The eagle had been on the gro ..read more

Mr. Grumpy (great blue heron) greeted me when I got to the Largo Nature Preserve in early January. It was chilly so that might have been why he was fluffed up. Blue-gray gnatcatchers were everywhere. A limpkin was across the pond and had a snack. The pied grebes were still being cute. I don’t often see 2 together. It looked like they were having a spat over something. A little later I saw one of them with a big crawfish. The pretty grackle was yelling at me for being on his boardwalk. I found an alligator in a corner of the pond. The first shot up close is with my camera and the 2nd on ..read more

The 2024 New Year’s Day sky at the Safety Harbor fishing pier. No sunrise this morning. After walking around the park area for a while the clouds were starting to part and I could see blue sky. I stopped at nearby Folly Farms for another walk before heading home. The holiday lights were still shining in the trees. It was hard to capture the lights in the daytime. Next Christmas I will try and get here at night to see the lights. The weather was mild and there was a lot of color in the butterfly garden. The balloon cotton-bush/balloon milkweed was full of caterpillars. It felt like spring ..read more

You know it’s winter here when you see the water plant in Tarpon Springs full of ducks. There are mostly redheads but also a few scaup and ring necked ducks mixed in. The few times I stopped by in the morning they were all sleeping but I caught a few bathing and shaking off one morning. I saw one female bufflehead in the mix. Heading farther north to Craig Park I saw 2 eagles sitting on a tower. I pulled over and took the above. When I was heading home later they were still sitting there. I’m assuming they don’t have a nest since both are spending the morning on the tower. When it’s cold ..read more

It was the middle of January and it was blasting windy and cold but I still made it down to Fort Desoto to see the new baby great horned owls. They had nested right on the top of a dead palm tree. This was a late day shoot so you weren’t shooting right into the sun so I was there late in the afternoon. Not long after I arrived Mom was sitting on the nest with feathers sticking to her beak. What was she eating? The little baby had been hiding under Mom’s wing but it made a brief appearance and Mom gave it a few bites. I hated that big branch that was in Mom’s face but if I moved over to the r ..read more

This was way too easy. I had heard there was a Baltimore oriole that has been hanging out near the ball park at Crescent Lake Park for weeks. It was the end of December and he was a little late for fall migration. I walked down the sidewalk towards that end of the park and saw a flash of orange in the trees. There he was, hopping around looking for bugs high up. After snapping several pictures I headed over to the lake. Across the pond I could see some white pelicans under the big banyan tree. They were hiding in the shade so I kept going to the other end of the lake. I found four feeding ..read more

I heard there was a lark sparrow at Roosevelt Wetlands in north St. Pete. I have only seen one once years ago at Fort Desoto. The above was not it. The above is a common winter visitor, a yellow-rumped warbler. There were a lot of them at the wetlands and they are not shy and will pose for a pictures. The above is also not a lark sparrow. He’s an uncommon western kingbird. I haven’t seen one since 2019. He flew right in front of the crowd looking for the lark and posed on a big stick. Again, not the lark. The above is a Savannah sparrow, a fairly common bird. I did not find the lark on this ..read more

European starlings get no respect here. They are treated like annoying pigeons. They are an invasive species here in the United States but they are pretty when the sun hits them just right. I found this one alone at Crescent Lake Park in St. Pete. I stopped for a quick walk and to see if the white pelicans were still there. This wood stork was feeding right in front of me. I did find the white pelicans and took a ton of shots of them feeding but more on them later. After a walk around the lake I drove 10 minutes over to the North Shore Park on the bay. As soon as I got out of my car I heard ..read more

While Brett and I were on our staycation in Manasota Key we spent a day in nearby Venice (just south of Sarasota). Our first stop in Venice was the Audubon rookery. This was my first visit but I had heard a lot about it during bird nesting season. I knew we would be too early to see any babies but I still wanted to stop by and see if it’s worth another trip down. The rookery is smaller than the one in north Tampa but great blue herons nest here and not in Tampa. There were only a few of them on the morning we were here but I was able to catch some flirting going on. This was the only couple ..read more