A Walk on the Beach

 I don't take walks on the beach enough. I should do it every day. I am lucky to live close enough that I can leave the house and be at the beach in about ten minutes. We have a long beachside where I live in Brevard County, and I have promised myself to get out more often.

One of the reasons I need to walk is because I like to eat. About once a week I visit a local place called Frigates. It is located less than five minutes from my home and sits on the Eau Gallie River. The site use to be a Burger King and that turned into the Eau Gallie Crab House. The original is located in North Palm Beach, and this is their second location. It was in the local paper that a new one is planned in Palm Bay.

The Frigate bird is legendary to sport fishermen and its presence is an indicator to a bountiful catch, good times and success. I saw lots of them in the Galapagos. This is a wooden one flying over the outside bar at Frigates...

The food is great but a little expensive. No Burger King sales here... They do have a nice sushi menu and I ordered the spicy tuna bowl on my visit yesterday. Plenty of spicy raw tuna served over seaweed salad with avocado, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. A dab of masago on top.

A meal like that and I realize I need  to walk. My Doctor wants me to walk without my camera because I need to get my heart rate up. It does work because I become steamed by all the great photos I am missing. So, against Doctor's orders, I walked with my camera today.

Today I decided to head over to Melbourne Beach. Spessard Holland has two Parks, one called North Beach and one called South Beach. I parked at North Beach and walked down to South Park. Kenny was not there so he was not killed...

As I arrived I took a photo looking North. There were lots of fishermen today, most out to enjoy the sun and great weather.

As I started my walk, I saw what I thought was a snorkeler in the water. I figured I get a few shots of the swimmer but as I got closer I realized it was a Cormorant. I guess my eyes are not that great, even though I just passed my eye exam without needing prescriptions. This guy was struggling to down a large fish...

The fish was swallowed and it started to flap its wings. I guess it was making room for more fish...

There were a few dead things along the beach today including this jellyfish. I am not positive but I think this is called a cannonball jellyfish. I asked the nearest fisherman if they could use it for bait. One guy laughed and said sorry but he did not have any peanut butter. Ha ha.

Other dead thing included some crab parts and a full size seagull. I did not get too close to the bird but it looked like it not had been dead long since there were no scavengers on it. Maybe the water is too cold for the birds. This group of Ruddy Turnstone Sandpipers were hanging away from the water. I guess it was grooming time.

There was a still life. I am not sure if it was an apple, or onion, or tomato, or some king of jellyfish. One of the little sandpipers ran up to it and ran just as fast away. Maybe it smelled bad...

As I am walking, I keep an eye out for flying birds. I have more enough pictures of birds on the ground so I am challenging myself to get more creative shots. What I need to learn is to widen the lens coverage as the bird gets closer. Here are two shots of seagulls flying by me while I walked...

In this particular part of the beach, there are not too many houses or condos. It is one of the reasons I like to walk here. But I just like how this home looks. I could live there!

This might be a name or a slogan I do not understand..."Selah Strong!"

There were fishing boats around today. Usually I do not see very many but there were more than usual. It looks like fun!

This osprey flew by and I got a few shots. There were some people fishing and I told them to watch out for the osprey, he may eat their fish. They just laughed and said they were not worried. I am always amazed to watch the ospreys as they fly. There were two, maybe siblings, fishing in the area beyond the break. They were heading out to sea and I would lose sight of them but then they would head back towards me.

As you can see, the beach was pretty empty. But my eyes are not what they use to be so there could be lots of people.

I accidently took this photo. I thought it was a flock of birds, working on their tans. I was wrong

These willets were just hanging away from the water too. If you squint, it kind of looks like the previous photo. I like the symmetry of it, two standing and two lying. I wonder if there is a bird workbook.

These Royal Terns have no book on alignment. Some looking East, North, South and West...

This willet was so worried about me that he let a wave hit him.

And that concludes the walk on the beach.