hungry birds

brown pelicans in the morning. sanibel island, january, 2011.

ok, so now the days on sanibel start to flow together in my mind. no more day 1, day 2. etc. the excruciating schedule of events during our time on the island (long walks on the beach, staring at the ocean, observing the birds, writing in my little notebook, more long walks, shelling, swimming, hypnotic looking at and listening to the sea, more bird watching....you get the idea of how hectic things were) has made it impossible to remember exactly what happened on what day. therefore i will lead you through the island's delights as they come to me.

early one morning it started out rather chilly (50 degrees! ha! freezing, right? wait until i tell you what the temperature is like in maine-stay tuned!) and windy, and on that morning more pelicans than usual were engaged in a feeding frenzy. they dove into the ocean and flew away with mouths full of fish, only to return again to gorge themselves some more. trying to photograph the fast movements of the pelicans in flight was difficult. i tried, but not with much success.

later in the morning sandpipers in the surf and tropical ibises in the dune sunflowers were enjoying their own feasts. all these birds were so focused on devouring food they hardly looked up, and allowed me to get quite close. i guess they figured get it while the gettin's good.