Action at Sunset!!

Hi folks,

Well what a day, just finished kite flying, had a shower and a dip in a Jacuzzi before my last evening at the Thunderbird Hotel and setting off on our travels again. This part of the world is renound for sunsets so I thought I would go down to the sea shore and check it out.

This seagull was checking me out on my arrival.

A couple of days ago I showed a big lumbering Pelican standing in the curb at Gulfport and the story that they were nearly wiped out in the Gulf oil tragedy last year and that they were back.

Whilst waiting for the sun to go down there was loads of activity with them and the gulls feeding.

Here he is in flight, I wonder how he manages to stay in the air at this level skimming over the surface looking for fish.

Then pow! they dive straight into the water to get there prey.

A bit of information for you is that they dive with one eye closed to protect it as after a period of time they become blind in that eye and revert to the other half way through there lives. The sad thing it that the end up completely blind and then die of starvation.

Now what did I come down here for? oh yes the sunset.

Well that over I started to pack up, the birds where still diving so I watched intently and the I spied a Heron along the beach and walked towards him very slowly and to my surprise he was not interested in me but something in the water so I popped off a few shots of him thinking that's great, they were a bit noisy as the sun had gone and night was drawing in.

Then all of a sudden he disappeared into the water.

I stood there in disbelief as he reappeared with a fish right in front of me, he was not at all bothered so I ran off a load of shots and then thought about fill flash on the camera. This is the shot I finally put up.

Well I was very pleased as I made my way back to the hotel to go out for dinner.

Well that's another grand day of our trip over, we move on tomorrow we don't know where somewhere in Florida.

Thanks for looking.

nite, nite, Luv Mike and Sue XX