Thursday, May 20, 2010

Brown Pelicans and Black Vultures

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As we went to find a campsite in Flamingo (Everglades National Park) a ranger told us about the crocodile that had been on the opposite bank and we went to look for him. We never did see a Florida crocodile, just lots of alligators. But we found some pelicans. The fellow above is a juvenile Brown Pelican.

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I think he's pretending to be a statue.

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I find it funny that the adult Brown Pelicans aren't really brown.

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We had a little bit of time to look around before dark. Haden found this spider.

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I'm pretty sure this isn't blood in the water, such a large area was this color we're thinking there's some mineral or something making the water red. Very odd.

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Before leaving the park the next morning we stopped to walk a trail and take some bird photos. We were surprised to see signs warning about black vultures attacking/damaging vehicles. Near one of the signs was this vulture strung up, I assume as a warning to other vultures.

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I don't think it works, lol.

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I don't find them near as creepy as the turkey vultures we have at home.

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PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecilyand Mom24

14 comments:

  1. Well, I might just be a teensy bit concerned if it was my car that those vultures were sitting on. I'd be afraid to approach the car. The strung up vulture seems more like free dinner than a warning in the vulture world. They eat anything, right?

    My favorite thing about pelicans is watching them fly. They look like dinosaurs. Very cool!

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  2. The birdie has a big long beak!

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  3. i love your brown pelican pic. he's gorgeous. but, it saddens me to see the vulture hanging like that. hopefully he was just there as an easy food source for other birds flying by. lastly, did that vulture damage the car near the taillight? if so, i'd be afraid to mess with that one. have a great day/ weekend.

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  4. That first guy's just hanging around waiting for Julia Roberts to show up. The vultures? One look at those beaks makes me gladder than ever that I'm still alive!

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  5. Wow! Great pictures. I absolutely love brown pelicans. I like to see turkey vultures too, although I've only ever seen them from a distance.

    I would freak a little at having to confront vultures on my car. :)

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  6. I would SO not being going near my car if those birds were camping out in it!! I'm freaked by birds as it is (I recognize their beauty, but I'd rather recognize it from afar), and those creatures are BIG.

    So I know I'm lame and a city girl and all, but why did they really string up that vulture?

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  7. Those pelicans are cute as can be. How great that your family is spending time together seeing all the minute details around you like the spider. Stringing up that vulture should have worked - yikes! We had a pigeon problem in the eaves of our house years ago. Hubby found one dead on the ground and actually put it up on the ledge of their favorite spot to hang out as a deterrent. Surprisingly, it worked. They were probably saying, "Stay away from the freaky guy's house ... let's watch him from the neighbor's!"

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  8. That baby bird is adorable :-)
    Great shots ......

    Have a relaxing weekend
    Kareltje & Anya
    =^.^=

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  9. The vullture is pretty scary looking ... the dead one and the living one!

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  10. I don't know, I think that last photo is actually stunning, but the hanging one, yikes. Who knew vultures attacked cars? What's up with that? As always, wonderful fabulous shots...

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  11. Wonderful pelican shots. I did a post on the brown pelican last November when the species was delisted from the endangered species list: http://godutchbaby.blogspot.com/2009/11/brown-pelican-delisted-from-endangered.html
    I'm hoping that the oil spill in the gulf will not affect them.

    We have turkey vultures here too, but I think this black-faced one is pretty creepy too. Beautiful detail.

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  12. Your images are always outstanding and your posts are always entertaining!

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  13. So many interesting things in this post! Firstly, I LOVE Pelicans so I'm glad you put him at the top. Great shots! The red water kind of creeped me out and the vultures? Hmmm... I am not too sure what to think. Beautiful photos! I'm just not sure what I think of the birds themselves. ;o) I know that if I squish a mosquito and his carcass lands on the ground I will leave him there, as a warning to his buddies... lol doesn't usually work either.

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  14. wow, that's pretty interesting about the vultures

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