Fort De Soto Park - Birthday Weekend Birdwatching - January 1, 2026

Happy New Year!  I had hoped to have a hot breakfast at the hotel before starting the day but was told the wrong start time.  When I arrived at 6:00 a.m. and learned it wouldn't open for another hour, I couldn't conceive of wasting that hour waiting so I grabbed a cup of coffee and a muffin from the hotel shop and headed out.

There were these really low clouds, more formed than a general fog but as low as fog.  The very first rays of red and orange light were just starting to peak over the horizon making the clouds look like they were on fire.  And then all the clouds lifted and before me was the beautiful skyline of Tampa.  I kept looking for glimpses of the sunrise as I crossed bridges and headed south to Fort De Soto Park.  At one point, it was a huge red ball behind a suspension bridge creating a gorgeous silhouette surrounded by color.  There was no where to pull over to take any photos so my descriptions will have to suffice.

I arrived at the park sometime shortly after 7:30 a.m. and parked in the lot by the north beach.  From the moment I stepped out of my car, my ears were greeted to the loud chatter of a flock of birds.  I went to investigate and found a huge flock of Nanday Parakeets.  They are a non-native species originally from South America that was a big part of the bird cage pet trade.  Enough of them escaped captivity in the Tampa Bay area to create large feral colonies.  I remembered them from my last visit to this park.

I spent at least three hours walking the beach, focusing on the tidal ponds away from the surf.  The highlight was definitely the Reddish Egrets.  They put on quite a performance for me.  As I did my editing of photos, I organized them by species this time so this isn't necessarily the order I found them in.

This is where I watched the first Reddish Egret I came across.

It was cold.  My feet were frozen and I wore gloves half the time.  But the beach isn't the same without sandals.

Here are the Reddish Egrets:

Red-breasted Merganser (there was just a single Merganser hanging out in the pond)

Snowy Plovers - These are so tiny!  I didn't even see them at first until the sand appeared to be moving which made me look a little closer!

Brown Pelicans - A few were even fishing in the surf.  I love how little grace they have as they plop in the water.

I didn't move my camera fast enough to capture the splash right after this moment!

Palm Warblers - These cute little birds were everywhere!

Ring-billed Gull

Royal Tern

Herring Gull (Juvenile)

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Laughing Gull

Common Loon

Osprey

Tricolored Heron

Great Egret with a White Ibis family

Killdeer in the parking lot

After about 3 hours of walking and very little to eat for breakfast, I was getting really hungry.  On my way back to my hotel, I stopped off to top off my car and get a sub from Wawa.  I spent a quiet afternoon going through the 724 photos I had taken that day and then had hoped to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant so I didn't have to go back out.  Unfortunately, the information I had been given about the restaurant for dinner was wrong too and they never opened that night.  So I went out and grabbed a quick burrito from a fast casual restaurant down the street.

Before I went back to the room for the night, I talked to the staff again to get confirmation about the breakfast hours the next morning.