Breakfast of the champions!

Another great day! Hubs was working this morning so I headed over to Sand Key Park again to see what was awaiting me. The spoonbill (blipped yesterday - thank you for all the hearts and stars!) was still there and I took about 100 shots, the best of which I will put on Flickr when I am home. At one point, I was within 15 feet of him - Wowee! I also got some excellent shots of the yellow-crowned night heron, some white ibis and a beautiful Little Blue Heron catching minnows.

But the show belonged to the pair of osprey. They have a large nest on a platform in the park and I've seen them every day when I've been there. They didn't seem to be sitting on eggs but the female was staying close to the nest, so I wasn't sure. Today, this one nabbed a big fish from the pond, took it to his favorite perch (seen here) then proceeded to do...nothing! Finally he grabbed his fish and flew over to the nest where he presented it to the female...only to be shunned. So he took his fish and few around for a while before returning to his perch with his prize. Another osprey was circling, so this fellow put on an impressive show of wings, defending his catch. Once he started to devour it, I went back to photographing the spoonbill. Then, while I was snapping away, he few back to the nest and ...proceeded to hop on the female! I got a bunch of shots of the conjugal visit, but thought that maybe osprey sex was a bit much. Besides, this is the shot that hubs liked the best. Breakfast of the Champion.

This afternoon we went to the Tampa Zoo - what a wonderful zoo! We had a terrific time although I have virtually no pictures to show for it ... Both my camera AND my phone batteries died within 30 minutes of arrival! Oh well. Highlight of the day was watching two marabou storks tending to a nest and me feeding a giraffe some lettuce leaves! Have you ever seen a giraffes tongue?? It is truly amazing.

One more day in paradise ... Tomorrow we plan to drive to Honeymoon Key for beaches and birds and maybe even a sunset...

Thank you so much for sharing my excitement over the spoonbill yesterday - that was a bird I had hoped so much to see, so what a treat!

Xxoo
Debbi

Note: no edits to this - SOOC. The sky was epic.