Pelican at Ft DeSoto - September 27, 2014

This pelican and several others were being severely harassed by laughing gulls!  I have seen this before, but today there were several incidents going on at once.

Ft DeSoto - September 27, 2014

Found some migrants at the mulberry tree area, but not anywhere else.  Good variety of birds, and one lifer - alder flycatcher.  Glad someone had already identified this bird a couple days ago by the sound it was making, or else I would never know which of the empid species it was!  

Crews Lake Park - September 21, 2014

Migration is underway!  Went out hoping to find some of the leftover "fallout" from the storms earlier this week, but most have probably moved on.  I did not find the Blackburnian warbler or Veery being reported across the state this week.  This was not a bad day for birding though actually, not as good for photography, so I made a collage.  One life bird today was the Northern Waterthrush.  Amazing I have not seen this bird until today, but I did once see the rarer Louisiana Waterthrush at Brooker Creek.  I also absolutely heard the CAW CAW of the American Crow.  I am counting this as another life bird, even though I did not go look for him to get a picture for some reason.  This bird can really only be distinguished from the very common fish crow by its sound.  Glad I am finally getting more of those!  The bird of the day was the white-eyed vireo.  They were all over the park with probably about 10 seen or heard.

Skipper Butterfly on Cesarweed

Sulphur Butterfly on Grapevine

 Trumpet Flower

Goldenrod

 Northern Parula

Red-bellied Woodpecker

 Five-Lined Skink

Busch Gardens - September 14, 2014

I spent most of my time with the chimps and gorillas today.  Two of the gorillas, male and female, were playing together for like half an hour right up against the glass.  It was really neat to watch the two of them.  The chimps had a little huddle after I took these shots of them individually.

Jack Hanna - September 14, 2014

After seeing Jane Goodall on Wednesday at USF (no photos) it was another treat to see Jack Hanna.  What great people promoting animals and environmental activism (on behalf of animals mostly).  While Jane Goodall's subjects ranged from animal cruelty, vegetarianism, animals in zoos, conservation, and her projects to get people involved around the world, Hannah's show today was all about the animals.  It must've been the best animal show I have ever seen for two reasons: baby snow leopard and baby aardvark.  Wow!