Eagle at Tierra Verde, Florida

I took these photographs February 2011. I posted photographs taken February 2009 at the same location, click here to see the earlier post. The photographs then were of what I thought was a 3rd year eagle. So is this the 5th year, or has the 3rd year eagle gone and this is one of the original parent eagles?

Sorry, the photographs aren't closer, there is a pond between the nest and me. With signs that people are not allowed any closer, due to the eagle nest.

I retire the end of the month. I will see if I am able to get back to blogging, or if retirement will still have me too busy to sit in front of a computer.

Bald Eagle at Tierra Verde

This Bald Eagle nest is also on Tierra Verde

close to St Pete Beach in Florida. Taken February 2009.The nest is at the back side of a pond,

fairly close to a small ballpark.
We parked in the ballpark parking lot to walk
down to the 2 ponds that all the ducks were in.
About mid way of this pond there is a large sign telling people to stay away due to the Eagle nest. Not sure anybody could get through that thicket below the Eagle. But I am sure there would be some people try, if they weren't afraid of the ticket for doing so.

The reason the quality of these photos is so poor is because we stayed on the road side of the pond. We walked past this pond 3 different days, we only saw the Eagle one time.

What do you think, is the head totally white?
Or is this a 3rd year Eagle?

The reason I am asking is...it does not appear to be totally white to me, but one of the local birders I spoke to at the ponds (with all the ducks) said the one she had seen was a full adult with a definitely white head. But this was the same lady that told me there was a Ruddy Duck out there that day. When I got my photos to the computer I was never ever able to find a Ruddy in all the bunch. The Scaups is what I think she was seeing.

So what do you think? Is his head white or not totally white? Enlarge to see better.

Ring Necked Duck at Tierra Verde

These Ring Necked Ducks were at the Tierra Verde

pond close to St Pete Beach in Florida. Taken in February 2009.
This trip was my first experience with ducks,
beyond Mallards and the common white ducks
at the local duck pond.

I was so excited to see so many different ducks
at these 2 ponds at an entrance to a subdivision.
Notice the photo below and the 2nd from the top
also have American Coots in the photos.

I haven't actually counted the different ducks we saw yet,

because I am still going through the photos

to see what all I did capture.

As always if I have the id wrong, please correct me.

Pie Billed Grebe

Jimmy first spotted these Pie Billed Grebe.He said there was something out there that keeps sinking

and then coming up on the other side of the pond.

After you see one of these,
that is what draws your attention to them.

The first 3 were taken at Tierra Verde pond in February 2009.

Then I came home and was at the "duck pond" as the Fountain City pond is referred to locally and that tell/tell sign of sinking caught my eye. I had to go and investigate it. Sure enough there it was right here in Tennessee too.

Mergansers - Common and Red Breasted

Mergansers - Common or Red Breasted. The first 3 photos were taken at the pond on Tierra Verde,

close to St Pete Beach in Florida.
I originally had all these photos grouped together.

But on closer inspection, I think I have the Red Breasted
in the top 3 photos, and the Common in the bottom 3 photos.

The bottom 3 photos were taken at Fort DeSoto Park,
also near St Pete Beach in Florida.

They were taken 3 days apart. Tierra Verde is the small

strip of land you travel to the Fort DeSoto Park.

I know the quality could be better, but I would still appreciate
any clarification of the correct identifications of these Mergansers.

Northern Shoveler at pond on Tierra Verde

Last week I posted some ducks taken at the ponds on Tierra Verde. There are 2 ponds at the entrance to the subdivision.
One pond had lots of different ducks, but the other pond just had Northern Shovelers.

Both ponds have high grass around them, so it does make it harder to get the good photos.

Most of the ducks were new to me. Winter migration brought them to Florida, same as me. I was looking for warmer weather right along with them.

It was such a delight to see so many new birds, in the form of ducks.

Here you can see the grass is getting in the way of my photography.

Just got the one raising out of the water.

Greater Scaup at Tierra Verde

One of the days we were at the pond at Tierra Verde a local birder was very excited because she saw a Ruddy Duck. She told me it had white on it's face. So when I got these photos in the computer I thought I had captured the Ruddy Duck.

When I consulted my reference book none of the ducks I have photos of looked like the Ruddy Duck to me. I first thought I had all Lesser Scaup.

Then the 3rd photo made me think Greater Scaup.

As always please enlarge to help with the identification.

This post and the last may all be the same, if so probably Lesser Scaup.

Please see the previous post for the ones I thought were the Lesser Scaup.

I would appreciate any and all help with identifications, because usually the only ducks I see are Mallards and Common Moorhens.

Lesser Scaup at Tierra Verde

These are some more ducks at the pond on Tierra Verde.

I think these are Lesser Scaup, except the far left front one in the first photo.

The ducks in these 2 ponds just mingle all together.

The second photo is all female and male Lesser Scaup.

I am also posting a 2nd post with the Greater Scaup.

I would appreciate any help with identiciations if I am wrong.

Please click to enlarge.

Thousands of ducks, all kinds

I am going to take a rest from the cruise and post some photos from Florida.The weather was not the greatest for the beach while we were in Flordia.
So we did a lot more walking. Visited a lot of parks we had not been to before. Of the parks Lake Seminole Park is still my favorite for birding.

At the entrance to one of the fancy neighborhoods on Tierre Verde (close to St Pete Beach) we saw lots of ducks in the 2 ponds as we passed going to Fort DeSoto Park.

We ended out going there 3 different times, and all but the first time there were birders there. One day one of them was so excited that there was a Ruddy Duck in the crowd. Can you find him? (Ha!) I think I have a couple of close ups of him that I will be posting later.

The appearance of these ducks seemed to be well known by the local birders.

They may be there every winter. You can rest assured I will check it out every year from now on. The only problem with the location is all that tall grass growing all around the ponds. Have to search for a spot to photograph the ducks through.