Yellow Crowned Night Heron

 

Dining in Clearwater and St. Petersburg

The seafood is supposed to be good in the greater Tampa area. This great egret on Honeymoon Island must have been thrilled when he caught this fish.


However, he had never heard that you should never eat anything larger than your head. He tried many different ways for about 5 minutes, but was unable to swallow the fish.


The next day, we saw another egret at Sand Key Park struggle a while with a fish, but eventually positioned it and swallowed it.


This osprey shows a different way to deal with a large fish.



We were surprised to see that the great egret also eats grasshoppers.

Florida Birds

It will take a while to sort through the photos, but here are four good ones from St. Pete.
Pileated Woodpecker, Roseate Spoonbill, Bald Eagles, Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Woodpeckers

Downy Woodpecker

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Snow Accumulating on Canada Geese

 

 

We are back in New Jersey after visiting our children in California. We also visited a few bird watching areas in Southern California. We did see a few Canada geese when we were there. However, we had to come back to New Jersey to see a lake with ice on it and snow accumulating on the Canada Geese. Perhaps it's a good day to have a down blanket.

Reddish Egret from Bolsa Chica

 

We took several photos of this unusual heron at Bolsa Chica Wetlands. When we got back, we identified it as a reddish egret, a fairly rare egret that has been spotted there.

Eared Grebe from Bolsa Chica

 

Here's a photo of an eared grebe. They have similar coloring to the western grebe but are about half the size. They are great underwater swimmers- quickly covering almost 100 feet in a single dive.