Birds

Acorn Woodpeckers

Acorn Woodpeckers of the Western US and Mexico store acorns in "granary" trees and defend them aggressively.  They wedge the acorns into holes in trees or wooden telephone poles so tightly that crows, squirrels, and rats can't raid their supply. 

To remove an acorn, a woodpecker hammered it with its bill to crack the shell and extract the meat.

Florida Scrub Jay

These birds cache food by burying one acorn at a time;  if they observe another jay, a potential cache robber, watching them, they will return later to move the acorn.

But they will only do this if they themselves were cache robbers in the past.  Seems that honest jays trust other ones and thieves do not.

Western Scrub Jays are very similar in appearance to our FL Scrub Jays

        

   

          

Bird Survey, Pinellas NWR: 12-31-17

Bald Eagle

with the iconic Don Cesar Resort in the background

Green Heron

Miller Family Bird Colony Island (aka Bird Island West in contrast to Bird Island East in Coffee Pot Bayou)

Great Blue Heron

Snowy Egret

Deck Shots

Great Blue Heron

The largest heron in North America

They eat mainly fish but we have seen them eat rats, small sting rays, snakes, lizards, rabbits, and other small animals.

Male House Sparrow

These birds return to their birthplace after each migration (a characteristic known as philopatric).  Because of this, local populations have adapted to the color of their habitat resulting in 15 distinct subspecies in the West.

Rain Lilies 

Bird Survey, Pinellas NWR: 12-31-17

Reddish Egret on Tarpon Key

Osprey on the hunt

Female with the brown “necklace"

Probable male with a clean white breast without a “necklace"

Unlike Bald Eagles, Ospreys can become completely submerged during a dive into water and are still able to fly away with their prey.

Their oily and dense plumage provides water proofing.

Healthy Oyster Bars on Tarpon Key

Black Skimmers at North Shore Beach: 1-5-18

Black Skimmers bathing

Black Skimmers with Forster’s Tern

The Black Skimmer has one of the most unusual forging styles of any North American bird.

A feeding skimmer flies low over the water with its bill open and its lower mandible slicing through the water.

When the mandible touches a fish, the upper bill snaps down instantly to catch it.

More interesting foraging shots