A Wonderful Bird is the Pelican...

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belly can,
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I see how the helican!
by Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879–1972)

I admit to being utterly smitten with pelicans. They look so prehistoric yest their eyes are those of an old soul. They waddle on land but are surprisingly graceful in the air. And they are endlessly entertaining to watch.

I went to the annual street market in Gulfport today to pick up a few Christmas things and found myself at nearby Clam Bayou for a little photography. Someone had just come in from a successful morning of fishing and was cleaning his catch at one of the tables on the water. A crowd of pelicans waited directly below, accompanied by a bunch of thieving Laughing Gulls. On and around the cleaning table were wood storks, two great blue herons and a handful of snowy egrets. All eyes were on the fisherman while my camera was waving around trying to catch everything.

I picked this shot because I like how it looks on LARGE where you can see the veins running through the pelis pouch. It was a hard choice today as I also had a nice up close look at another river otter at Lake Seminole early this morning. He was running right towards me at one point! I posted nine other shots (starting with a peli close up and finishing with the otter) starting HERE on Flickr. I even managed a shot of a flock of black-hooded parakeets doing a very fast fly-over!

Hubs arrived safely in Alabama last night and has been enjoying family time. Very glad he made this trip, even though I miss him.

Looking forward to seeing the changes at Blip! I think they are shutting down very shortly, so not sure how many blips I'll be able to look at before they go dark.

Cheers,
Debbi