Pelicans, Palms, and Pines
The drive from Crystal River to Englewood was mostly freeway, with a few stops to pay tolls because my EZ-Pass doesn't work in that part of the state. Traffic was very light most of the way, and only got slow for a few minutes going through the St. Petersburg area. The bridges over Tampa Bay are gorgeous when the sun is out and the air is so clear. As big metropolitan areas go, the traffic in Tampa-St. Petersburg felt pretty mellow mid-day on a weekday.
My time in Englewood was spent visiting with my old friend, resting from the road, taking walks in the cool mornings, and looking at the water. We went for a drive one afternoon and just happened to show up at the Peace River Wildlife Center in time for pelican feeding. We stood right behind the chain link fence, and I recorded the activity. I pointed my camera lens between links in the fence and snapped a photo of a number of pelicans. One fellow (or it could be a gal -- according to the staff, it's hard to tell the difference if you're a human, so I can be forgiven if I got this wrong) was looking right at me and I got this shot:
Normally I don't post 15-minute-long videos, but there was so much activity during bird feeding that I enjoyed watching it all the way through a second time, so I thought others might too: https://youtu.be/46FguY9MagM After watching the narration of the feeding session, you'll be able to identify a couple of different types of pelicans, ibis, and sandhill cranes.
The wildlife center houses and feeds a number of birds that have been rescued due to injury or illness. They're kept in shelters at night, but during the day they're in an open-air area where other birds can come and visit. At afternoon feeding time, there are additional pelicans and other birds who add themselves to the scramble for fish. The morning and night feedings happen in the shelters, so all the resident birds are guaranteed a meal at that time. Not so during the afternoon, and it's fun to watch the mad scramble of clacking pelican beaks in that video. I was reminded of a group of people armed with chopsticks trying to catch snacks being tossed through the air while all the other chopstick-holders are trying to do the same thing.
After watching the birds get fed, it was time to feed us humans. The waterways of this part of Florida are edged with more outdoor places to sit and refresh yourself than can be counted. Here's the view from where I sat at Hurricane Charlie's in Punta Gorda:
Of course the view was much wider than that, but that old pier and the birds jockeying for position on top of the pilings caught most of my attention. This close-up of the pilings isn't a great photo, but shows more clearly how many birds were hanging out there.
I noticed seagulls, and pelicans, and other birds I couldn't identify from that distance. Size was clearly an advantage when it came to claiming a position, but so was boldness. I saw several seagulls displace pelicans by coming in hot for a landing from the rear. There was no argument, the birds just moved on to another piling, resulting in an apparent game of "musical pilings" in which the music never stops.
After a couple of days there, I felt rested and ready to move on to more adventures. I got to experience unusually warm weather for January while I was there, but cooler temps were forecast soon and I was planning on heading Northeast, so there weren't going to be very many more days suitable for wearing sleeveless shirts and shorts.
Those photos were all really muted in color and that area of Florida is actually a lot more colorful than that at this time of year, so here's something for some color:
And a bit more color in this classic Florida mixture of palms and pines and vines that shows up frequently in the northern half of the state:
My time in Englewood was spent visiting with my old friend, resting from the road, taking walks in the cool mornings, and looking at the water. We went for a drive one afternoon and just happened to show up at the Peace River Wildlife Center in time for pelican feeding. We stood right behind the chain link fence, and I recorded the activity. I pointed my camera lens between links in the fence and snapped a photo of a number of pelicans. One fellow (or it could be a gal -- according to the staff, it's hard to tell the difference if you're a human, so I can be forgiven if I got this wrong) was looking right at me and I got this shot:
The wildlife center houses and feeds a number of birds that have been rescued due to injury or illness. They're kept in shelters at night, but during the day they're in an open-air area where other birds can come and visit. At afternoon feeding time, there are additional pelicans and other birds who add themselves to the scramble for fish. The morning and night feedings happen in the shelters, so all the resident birds are guaranteed a meal at that time. Not so during the afternoon, and it's fun to watch the mad scramble of clacking pelican beaks in that video. I was reminded of a group of people armed with chopsticks trying to catch snacks being tossed through the air while all the other chopstick-holders are trying to do the same thing.
After watching the birds get fed, it was time to feed us humans. The waterways of this part of Florida are edged with more outdoor places to sit and refresh yourself than can be counted. Here's the view from where I sat at Hurricane Charlie's in Punta Gorda:
Of course the view was much wider than that, but that old pier and the birds jockeying for position on top of the pilings caught most of my attention. This close-up of the pilings isn't a great photo, but shows more clearly how many birds were hanging out there.
After a couple of days there, I felt rested and ready to move on to more adventures. I got to experience unusually warm weather for January while I was there, but cooler temps were forecast soon and I was planning on heading Northeast, so there weren't going to be very many more days suitable for wearing sleeveless shirts and shorts.
Those photos were all really muted in color and that area of Florida is actually a lot more colorful than that at this time of year, so here's something for some color:
And a bit more color in this classic Florida mixture of palms and pines and vines that shows up frequently in the northern half of the state:
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