A Day of Birds!

I started out the morning taking random photos of birds in our back yard.  Then, it was on to the beach for some pics.

The Common Gallinule is always scared of me, but today, there were two on the water behind our house and they didn't fly away. 

Is it just me, or does their beak look like Halloween candy corn?!!

My neighbor let me know that the Yellow Crowned Night Heron nest in the tree behind our  homes appeared to have several little heads peaking out.  Looks like 4 beaks in that nest!   No room for the parents in there!  I love the wild hair day they are all having.  There was also a nest with an Anhinga sitting in it, on the next branch down, but I couldn't get a good pic of it. 

I saw this out in the middle of the water.  I wasn't sure what it was until I took the photos off the camera.  The best I can tell, it appears it is a baby gator's head above the water and a large gator under the surface.  I took one photo and they disappeared and turned up in another area a minute later.

A blue jay and a common Grackle popped up to get their photos taken, too!  If I'm wrong about the Grackle, someone correct me!

At the beach, we were treated to a show of a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron eating a large crab.  It was quite entertaining!  First, he shook him good, seemingly to remove the sand.

He plucked the legs off and smacked it on the ground several times.  Then, tossed his head back and threw it down the hatch!  I don't see how he got that huge crab . . . shell and all . . . down that little neck!  How does he digest that hard shell?  Then, he picked up all the legs and swallowed them, too!

Ahhhh.  That hit the spot!!

This tree was full of Brown Pelicans.  The pic only shows some of them!  It reminded me of the P. D. Eastman children's book, "Go, Dog. Go!" with the great big dog party in the tree.  The only thing the pelicans needed were party hats!  If I were industrious, I would photoshop some party hats on them!

We are enjoying some beautiful clear water at the beaches right now.