Brown Pelicans in flight at John's Pass

I love Brown Pelicans. Captured these in flight at John's Pass in Maderia Beach, Florida.

More Brown Pelicans at John's Pass Boardwalk

Love that wing span.

And then landing.

Then I got another one as he is coming in to land on one of the post.

And then as he is trying to steady himself on the post.

Brown Pelicans at John's Pass

Here I have my favorite poses, on the post.

Brown Pelicans at John's Pass Boardwalk

The fishing boats come in close to the boardwalk at John's Pass. The fishermen feed the scraps to the Pelicans and Herons.

I think this bottom photo is one of my favorite. Although I like the ones of them on the post.

Osprey off shore at John's Pass

I took this photograph of a Osprey from the boat on a sunset cruise. I may be wrong, it may not be an Osprey. If I am wrong, please correct me. I am still a very young birder.

UPDATE: Per the comments, I did correctly ID this bird as an Osprey.

Heron at John's Pass in Maderia Beach

We should be on our way to St Pete Beach now. Both of these photographs were taken at John's Pass Boardwalk in Maderia Beach. We stay in St Pete, but we go to John's Pass couple of times a week (love The Friendly Fisherman Restaurant). The top photo is a Great Blue Heron.

Not sure about the little fellow. Look at the dark spot on his lower jaw. Is this the way the immature Blue Heron look? I don't think so. Could it be a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron? His legs look different too.

Pray for our safe trip, and please remember Wendy while I am gone. Not sure I will have any internet service the whole week. If I do I will visit. I already have plenty of post for your viewing while I am gone. I will be looking forward to seeing the comments left when I return.

Double Crested Cormorant

Well, I have finished with the fall colors photographs I took through last week. I went back to the Smokies on Wednesday morning so I am sure I will sharing more fall colors photos when we return from vacation. But for now we are headed south in the morning. I decided I should go through all the photographs I took in June while we were in Florida. So I did, while we are in St Pete Beach you will be viewing photos from our June trip to St Pete.

When I went to the Florida Birding Festival in April 2008 everybody there got excited when they saw a speck in the distance they said were Cormorants. There was always great discussions about how to tell the difference in a Double Crested and a Great.

So in June when we saw these up close, I got excited too. (Trained well!!)

I know it has to be a Double Crested, my reference book says Great Cormorant are not in Florida.

We were on a sunset cruise when I took these. These were taken right before I took the manatee photo I posted in June. The manatee photo was not that great. Looked like that monster Ireland claims to have in their lake.

Maybe this trip I will get some more of these birds. Love getting excited about my photography.

Snowy Egret in flight at John's Pass

Snowy Egret landing at John's Pass in Madeira Beach, Florida.