Tampa Bay

I've arrived safe and sound at Florida and am currently in my third day here. The place is lovely although the humidity is certainly something that takes a little getting used to. The food out here is seriously good and I can see myself putting on a few pounds out here, haha. As for the birding out here - it's seriously good. As I type I can hear a flock of chimney swifts calling outside, with the odd mourning dove singing as well as screeching blue jays.


Lettuce Lake Board-Walk

Day 1 (9th June), I payed a quick visit to Lettuce Lake Park. This is an excellent site with a boardwalk stretching 3,500 feet through forestry and marshland. It hosts numerous breeding birds such as summer tanagers, prothonotary warblers, red eyed vireos, swallow tailed kites, osprey, etc. I didn't get to spend much time here this day, as there was a fairly bad thunder storm looming. However, I did get to see a pair of swallow tailed kites, many ospreys, singing parulas and a pair of downy woodpeckers. Below is a picture of a very confiding osprey at the site.

Osprey


Also that day, I paid a visit to the local dog beach which is great place for seabirds including least terns, royal terns, laughing gulls, cormorants and a number of other species including loggerhead shrike, northern mockingbird, carolina wren, etc. During this visit I came across a very approachable loggerhead shrike which spent most of its time calling and hunting from a post along the beach.

Loggerhead Shrike

American Oystercatcher

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron


Day 2 (10th June), I took another visit to lettuce lake park where I saw a green heron and had several singing red eyed vireos, red cardinals, parulas etc. I also saw my first wild alligator here. On the way I saw a pair of swallow tailed kites, two dark morph short tailed hawks as well as a light morph. I also took a visit to the dog beach again where I took a number of pictures of confiding birds.

Green Heron

Mourning Dove

Brown Pelican

Boat-Tailed Grackle

Laughing Gull