Easily Amused -- My Day with the Pelicans

This is one of the females coming up from the water getting ready to dive again for the fish. You can always see the pictures larger by double clicking on them and then going back to the blog.


Well, my friend Sue always says that she is easily amused but I think I am even more easily amused. There was quite a flock of pelicans (somehow flock doesn't sound right) in the canal this morning. They were of several different colorations and I don't know the total meaning of that as I know they are all brown pelicans. Anyway, I have taken a LOT of pelican pictures so this morning I just played with taking pictures of pelicans taking off from the water!! Quite the trick to click at just the right time. Anyway, for your elucidation I have posted several of them! We have had a lot of males over the past couple of weeks but now the females are here with a vengence -- I think they are well into mating and feeding as they were literally diving all day -- hour after hour -- for the mullet in the canal.

I won't bore you with the fact that it was another gorgeous day and that I don't want to come home to cold and bad driving. I do like looking out the window at the snow, I must admit though.



We frequently see gulls sitting on the backs of pelicans and I did want to get a picture of this so I was in luck when this pelican had just caught a fish and was swallowing it. The gull perched on her head as they like to get anything the pelican might lose.l



This was my favorite of the lady pelican pictures. I have only posted the "boys" before.



This was my favorite of the diving pelican pictures.


This is about a 10 in by 15 inch box that I filled to a depth of about three inches with shells from the other morning. There are so many and so many that are fairly freshly dead that I am having trouble finding a place to let them dry out after soaking in water (that is why the color isn't too good -- they are covered with water to get the sand out).

I was amazed yesterday afternoon. I took my walk in the afternoon because the low tide is getting so much later now. I didn't expect to find anything as there are so many people out then. I only had a 16 oz coffee cup and a little plastic cup. I had them both filled to overflowing when some nice woman offered me a nice plastic bag so I could find more!!! I have found several unusual finds in the last couple of days -- fairly large horse conks (bright, bright orange), lace murex and angel wings. I have also seen a couple of live shells that aren't in my little cheat sheets of common Fla shells. I have one of almost everything except for the rarest finds on the beaches.