January 13, 2004 - Flamingo, FL - 2
Great little boat basin at the Jolly Roger Travel Park in Marathon. Couple of small charter boats kept here, but work out of the marina next door....for reasons not completely understood. And the ever present Brown Pelican standing watch in his winter colors--funny looking bird with long bill and short legs. This guy makes spectacular dives into the water, bill first, to catch fish. But they are moochers, waiting for the fishermen to clean their catch, flinging the carcass into the water.
Some on the beach, some on the rocks, and some in the water, heading over to greet us...and the fishermen who just pulled in. The different coloration has to do with gender, maturity, and season. The prettiest of course, being the mature male. Naturally.
What fun it is to be able to get shots like these. Frankly, I was thinking of my brother Ken, who is/was a pilot, and what terms he might use to describe the various wing positions of this big bird as it comes in for a landing. And what our mutual friend Dean might do to make the pictures better. Dean is into photographing and cataloging wildflowers at the moment, and has submitted some of his shots for competition. Ken and his wife Nancy and Barb and I are fortunate enough to be on Dean and Bettye's mailing list for the journal of their annual trek from San Antonio, TX, to someplace in Montana where they go to chase trout. I've showed pictures of Dean and Bettye before, from a trip we made to San Antonio this past March, I think it was. Dean and Bettye are the grandparents of our niece Amelia, who is a librarian in Juneau, Alaska.
These little guys wouldn't take flight until just before getting stepped on, they were so used to humans there at the pier in the park. And then a shot of the RV waterfront parking. Got to make reservations a lot earlier than we did to get these spots. But since this was about the only day without a pretty steady 25mph wind, we didn't really mind all that much.
Anybody know what kind of cactus-type tree this might be? We're used to strange plants in Florida, but this one isn't in the book we have.
And so ends another day in the beautiful, warm south Florida Keys.