Pelicans

Hello!
Today I am sharing a few of my favorite pelican photos. Before moving here I had never seen these unique birds up close. They are actually large and also very tame in the sense that you can walk up very close to them and they are not frightened-usually they just stare at you. Once however I observed one actually stalk a lady who was fishing off the pier at St. Petersburg Beach. He kept staring at her and she remarked she thought he was waiting for her to give him a fish. Not five minutes later the lady caught what looked to be a small angelfish and the pelican looked at it eagerly! He was rewarded as the fish was too small to keep. Pelicans are most frequently found along the beaches, I have not seen any venture inland to the suburbs of Tampa. The funniest thing about them is that they like to dive head first into the water, producing a large splash. This looks as though it would be painful, but they do it again and again.
About the photos: Photo 1-Taken on the beach just outside the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary, a nice but smelly place to visit http://www.seabirdsanctuary.com/. Photo 2-I took this at St Pete Beach. The southernmost point is a peninsula that is only about 3 blocks wide. You can walk from the beach across to the other side where you see a bay with many beautiful homes on the other side. This was taken on the bay side. Photo 3-One of my favorite photos taken on the Pier in downtown St. Petersburg with the city as a backdrop. Photo 4 was taken on a beach in Sarasota-sometimes it seems like these birds really want to pose for me!