Brown Pelican and Double Crested Cormorant

After a day on Clearwater Beach we took a quick trip along the coast to Clearwater seafront to look around. I took an opportunity to go to the end of Clearwater Pier. I was interested to see if there were birds at the end of the pier, in the same way that there had been on Cocoa Pier on our trip to Florida a few years ago. In doing so I managed to get close to 3 different species of birds. I have already posted images of the first of these - the Great Egret - please go to the blog post here for these photos.

One of the birds we had seen on Cocoa Pier was the Brown Pelican - and I had seen them from Clearwater Beach during the day, from where I had managed a couple of flight shots.

Brown PelicanClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Brown PelicanClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Brown PelicanClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Brown PelicanClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

I was delighted to find they were on the end of Clearwater Pier too. . Obviously accustomed to humans the birds sat on the rails of the pier, allowing for some great close up images of both adult and juvenile birds.

Brown PelicanClearwater Pier, Florida, USA Brown PelicanClearwater Pier, Florida, USA Brown PelicanClearwater Pier, Florida, USA Brown PelicanClearwater Pier, Florida, USA

The third bird I was able to photograph on the pier was the Double Crested Cormorant. These birds sat slightly further away, on top of posts that presumably exist to protect the pier from waves and any stray boats that may come too close.

At the end of the day I was able to take one these birds in silhouette, alongside the pier.

Double Crested CormorantClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

But the best shots were taken from the pier itself, where one bird in particular sat sunning its wings.

Double Crested CormorantClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Double Crested CormorantClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Double Crested CormorantClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

Double Crested CormorantClearwater Beach, Florida, USA

For more images of Brown Pelicans please go to the gallery here.

For more images of the Cormorants please go to the gallery here.