Fort De Soto County Park

Great Blue Heron’s Reaction to a Great Egret’s Intrusion

By |November 20th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Back in March of 2009 while I was photographing a Great Blue Heron on the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park in Florida a Great Egret flew in and walked close to the Great Blue Heron and me.

Male Red-winged Blackbird singing on a Mangrove

By |November 15th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Red-winged Blackbirds|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

I don't if this male was successful with the female Red-winged Blackbirds but he sure had me mesmerized with his sleek black feathers and his flashing red, orange and yellow epaulets.

Displaying Sandwich Terns In Low Light

By |November 13th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Sandwich Terns|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

These Sandwich Terns were courting early one morning at Fort De Soto's north beach and even though the light wasn't "sweet" I felt their courtship behavior was interesting.

Adult And Juvenile American Oystercatchers Feeding Side By Side

By |October 27th, 2013|Categories: American Oystercatchers, Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In 2008 I spent several months during the summer watching an American Oystercatcher family from the time the chicks were tiny until one of the chicks became independent.

Piping Plover on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico – 900th Post

By |October 26th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Piping Plovers|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Shorebirds; like this tiny Piping Plover I photographed on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, are the primary reason I became addicted to bird photography.

Greater Yellowlegs and Copyright Watermarks

By |October 4th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Copyright Infringement, Copyright Issues, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Greater Yellowlegs, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Which copyright watermark should I use? The small one that doesn't detract from the Greater Yellowlegs or the larger one that would make it harder for image thieves to use?

Female Long-billed Curlew in a Florida lagoon

By |September 28th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Long-billed Curlews|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

It has been another very long week so I thought I'd post a female Long-billed Curlew because of her very long bill but unlike the way my week went this curlew is graceful, elegant and serene.

Reddish Egret Hunting Along The Gulf Coast Of Florida

By |September 16th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Reddish Egrets|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Recently I posted images of a Tricolored Heron and a Black-bellied Plover where I wrote that I enjoyed images that include habitat, the same could be said about this photo of a Reddish Egret hunting on the shoreline of the Gulf Coast.

Landing Black Skimmer

By |September 6th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Black Skimmers, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Black Skimmers are known by several nicknames which include scissorbills, knifebill and cut-water for how their bills slice through the water when they are hunting and how their bills snap shut on prey.

Waves And A Forster’s Tern

By |September 3rd, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Forster's Terns, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

The nonbreeding Forster's Tern in these two images is the same bird and the images were taken ten frames and a few seconds apart as the tern stood on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.

Great Blue Heron Up Close And Not So Close

By |August 26th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

One December morning in 2008 I was sitting in the sand at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida when a Great Blue Heron came up and perched on a driftwood stump that had washed up onto the shore.

Nonbreeding Plumage Black Skimmer

By |August 10th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Black Skimmers, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

When I did my post the other day on "Missing Fort De Soto" I found this Black Skimmer image in my archives while looking for photos to put in that post and wanted to share it.

Snowy Plovers – North America’s Smallest Plover

By |August 9th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Snowy Plovers|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

A while back I did a post on the Least Sandpiper which is the world's smallest sandpiper so I thought I would do a post about North America's smallest plover, the Snowy Plover.

Missing Fort De Soto

By |August 7th, 2013|Categories: American Oystercatchers, Birds, Brown Pelicans, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Greater Yellowlegs, Marbled Godwits, Pinellas County, Ring-billed Gulls, Roseate Spoonbills, Semipalmated Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Some days I find myself missing Fort De Soto so much it hurts, the birds I found there and the entire experience of just being there. It is just such an amazing place, how could I not miss it?

Spots before my eyes – Spotted Sandpipers that is

By |July 29th, 2013|Categories: Beaverhead County, Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Montana, Pinellas County, Spotted Sandpipers|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

So I finally have images of the breeding plumage of this small shorebird that show the spots that gave this bird the name Spotted Sandpiper!

Great Blue Heron Portraits from Florida and Utah

By |July 18th, 2013|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Blue Herons, Pinellas County, Utah|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn't the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.

Five Years Ago Today At Fort De Soto

By |July 6th, 2013|Categories: American Oystercatchers, Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Great Egrets, Pinellas County, Reddish Egrets|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Five years ago today I headed to the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park despite knowing that there were looming storms off of the coast hanging just off shore over the Gulf of Mexico and I am glad that I did because the light that day on the beach was exquisite.

And We Have Lift Off!

By |June 30th, 2013|Categories: Antelope Island State Park, Birds, Davis County, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Horned Larks, Montana, Pinellas County, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Red-shouldered Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, Utah, Western Meadowlarks, Willets|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

I wanted to share some bird lift off images today so I rounded up a few that showed different styles of lift offs.

Laughing Gulls in breeding and nonbreeding plumage

By |June 29th, 2013|Categories: Birds, Florida, Fort De Soto County Park, Laughing Gulls|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Both of these Laughing Gull images were taken at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida, the image above shows a Laughing gull in nonbreeding plumage that was taken in September of 2008.

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