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In early November I went out for a bike ride on the north part of the Pinellas Trail, along the cow pastures. It was still warm and the sun was coming up later in the morning.
I passed the usual sandhill crane couple (at least I thought it was). There’s always a couple in this part of the cow pasture but there’s another couple that hangs out farther down the trail so it could be either couple.
Pretty colors along the trail including the beauty berry in the bottom shot. It was all over parts of the trail. The only birds I’ve ever seen eating them are catbirds, mockingbirds, blue jays and cardinals. They should have been feasting on them this morning but I didn’t see a single bird on any of it.
A swamp sparrow was checking me out while I was taking pictures of the plants.
I rode up on the back of this utility tower that sits on the trail and saw the eagle couple sitting high up in the tower. I stopped and pulled out my camera and started taking pictures and it looked like they were having a conversation.
It looks like the male had been flirting but not very successfully. He put his foot on her but stopped. Maybe he was asking her why she had another headache?? I rode to the front of the tower.
I stood there for at least half an hour hoping they would actually mate. They nest in the towers farther down the cow pasture. You can really see the difference in the size when they are together with the smaller male on the left. Female eagles (and most raptors) are larger in size. Some think it’s due to carrying eggs as well as being able to defend the nest and babies. I finally gave up and rode farther down where I saw a juvenile eagle alone on a tower.
The juvenile eagle sat on the tower for a few minutes and then took off over the trees.
There are several gopher tortoise nests (or sandy holes in the ground) along the trail but I don’t often see them outside of them. This big one was cruising around in the cow pasture.
Shots with my phone along the trail. It was a quiet morning and the trail was almost empty so I felt like I had the whole place to myself.
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