Tag Archives: Birdwatching

Trip to Fort DeSoto Park 2-20-08

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Today we drove to Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas county to “add birds to my life list.” Well, it turned out that as we drove over there, the clouds kept multiplying more and more. So, with overcast skies and a windy temp of 63 degrees, we found very few birds who wanted to have their picture taken or even be seen. We took a few pictures and then stopped by the Gandy causeway to feed some gulls and grackles.

Here is a list of today’s birds:

  • Going and coming home – Ospreys, Cattle Egrets, Mockingbird, Boat-tailed Grackles, Ring-billed Gulls, Turkey Vultures, Brown Pelican, Rock Doves(pigeons), Double-crested Cormorants sitting on the light posts on the bridge across Tampa Bay, Mourning Doves, Great Egret, and a Loggerhead Shrike, Ibises, and several UFO (unidentified flying objects-“birds”)
  • At Fort DeSoto – Brown Pelicans, Great Egret, Mourning Moves, 5 Black-hooded Parakeets, Loggerhead Shrike, Killdeer, Kingfisher, 2 American Kestrel, Reddish Egret, Ring-billed and Laughing gulls. We spotted an Ospreys’ nest and saw the baby stick it’s head up several times. Got one picture of it. Also have pictures, that I need to figure out what I saw. Stay tuned.
  • On Gandy Causeway – Fed ring-billed and laughing gulls, boat-tailed grackles and saw royal terns and some more that I still need to ID.

Not too bad of a day, in spite of the overcast skies.

The Birds of the Bible – Eagles

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Today we will start with the Eagle, which our pastor used as the theme of his article in this month’s Window. Here in North America we have the Bald Eagle (our National symbol) and the Golden Eagle, Stellar’s Eagle and White-tailed Eagle. The Bald Eagle’s “bald spot” doesn’t appear until they are 4 or 5 years old and develop a white head and tail. The Bald Eagle is only in North America. In Israel you might see a Short-toed Eagle, Great or Lesser Spotted Eagle, Steppe, Imperial, Golden, Booted, or Bonelli’s Eagle.

I love to watch an eagle flying; it stops me in my tracks. We are lucky here in Polk County to have many this time of the year. Stay alert and also visit the South Lake Howard Nature Center to see a pair sitting either on the tower or at the nest. Ask most anyone there and they will point out the nest.


Eagle on Tower Near Lake Howard and Eagle in Nest at Lake Howard Nature Park.

  • Job 9:26 – “Like an eagle swooping on its prey.”
  • Pro 30:19 – “The way of an eagle in the air”
  • Jer 49:22 – “fly like the eagle”
  • Hab 1:8 – “They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.”
  • Pro 23:5 –“They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.”

An African Eagle

“Birds display a wide range of patterns in flight. Swifts and swallows use a fast, gliding motion. Ducks and geese have sustained, powerful flight. Birds of prey such as eagles and falcons usually catch their targets by swooping from high in the sky, capturing their victims after a swift dive—which may reach speeds of 250 kilometers an hour (165 mph). As the bird swoops to the ground, it spreads its powerful wings to act as a brake.” (“Created to fly,” Creation 16(3), June 1994)

Click link to see a Bald eagle hovering and landing on rock.

Bald Eagle hovering and landing


For those of us in the “older generation,” Job 9:25-26 (NKJV) reminds us that we need to stay active for our Lord because our life passes by swiftly. “Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping on its prey.”

A few more facts about eagles:

  • Eagles are mentioned in hymns such as:
    They That Wait Upon the Lord –“They shall mount up with wings as eagles:”
    The Mercy Seat – “Ah, there on eagle wings we soar,”
    Art Thou Afraid? – “On eagles’ wings they mount, they soar, Their wings are faith and love,”
  • In Israel, the eagle is the largest bird and has an eight foot wing span.
  • There are at least 25 verses in the Bible that mention the eagle.
  • The eagle is an “unclean” bird.

There is much more to say about eagles, but we will leave them to continue with the many other birds mentioned in the Bible. A parting remark by C. H. Spurgeon quoted on Pg 57 of John Stott’s The Birds Our Teachers, follows:

“Brother, your failure, if you fail, will begin in your faith. The air says to the eagle, Trust me; spread thy broad wings; I will bear thee up to the sun. Only trust me. Take thy foot from off yon rock which thou canst feel beneath thee. Get away from it, and be buoyed up by the unseen element.’ My brethren, eaglets of heaven, mount aloft, for God invites you. Mount! You have but to trust him.”

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Introduction to Birds of the Bible

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American White Pelicans at Lake Hollingsworth

American White Pelicans at Lake Hollingsworth

Goal: To encourage your understanding and help you form a mental picture of the fowls or birds of the air found in scripture.

God has created the fowls and birds and they are mentioned throughout the Bible. When you read the name of a bird, does a mental picture come to view or do you just keep reading without a thought to what you just read? Sure, you know some of them, like the Eagle or a Sparrow, but how about a Bittern, Ossifrage, Hoopoe, or Lapwing? Not just their names are important, but how about the illustrations that use birds to teach lessons? God’s care, strength, provision and other lessons are taught with birds as the examples.

Wood Stork

“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;” Job 12:7

So, let’s get started with:

The Birds of the Bible

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” Gen 1: 20-23

Here we see that God created the birds on day five of creation and that “it was good.”

“Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” Gen 2:19-20a

Adam was given the privilege of giving all the “critters” their names. Were there as many varieties of birds then as now? There have been changes within the species (kinds), but not evolution (changing from one kind to another kind).

Depending on which copy of the Bible you use, here are some of the names of birds mentioned in the Bible. These will be introduced in following blogs. Not necessarily in the following order.
; Chicken; Cormorant; Crane; Cuckoo; Dove; Eagle; Falcon; Glede; Hawk; Hen; Heron; Hoopoe; Kite; Lapwing; Night Hawk; Osprey; Ossifrage; Ostrich; Owl; Partridge; Peacock; Pelican; Pigeon; Quail; Raven; Sparrow; Stork; Swallow; Swan; Vulture