anna maria island

we had a lovely, lovely, long walk on the beach yesterday. I saw so many birds all huddled together in groups, probably more than I ever saw in one place before. I was fascinated with this behavior and took lots of photos. In this photo, there are mostly black skimmers. I think they look like bandits! 

It was very windy so the waves were crashing on the shore. Many people were  swimming anyway, but not me. The water looked too wild so we walked and walked. Maybe the wind and waves were remnants of the system that brought hurricane irene? Perhaps that is why so many of the birds were all clustered together on shore.