Birds, Birds Everywhere!

What a lovely Sunday here in South Mississippi today! The temperature around 70 degrees brought out the humans, but so did it bring out the birds. Laughing gulls and brown pelicans jockeyed for position around the fish cleaning trough at the Inner Harbor in Ocean Springs. After the feeding session, a young brown pelican resting on the dock allowed a young couple with two small children to venture close and get a good look at him. Their van sported an Ohio tag. It may've been their very first view of a pelican. Perhaps the pelican sensed that and sat still to let them get a good look. We expect that will be a topic of discussion for a long time to come for them.

We ventured east to Pascagoula to the lake in front of Singing River Hospital. This little lake is a popular spot for many types of birds. With crackers in hand, we exited the van. Laughing gulls had already perched nearby. We suspect they were hopeful that the van occupants brought food. They were in luck. Two boxes of crackers and two bags of cookies later, we felt we'd fed an entire population of laughing gulls, ring-billed gulls, mallards, domestic ducks of various types, greater scaups and American Coots. The ducks and geese were only fortunate to get a few bites in the absence of the gulls. For reasons unknown to man, periodically gulls will panic, fly away in a large circle and finally return. There needn't be any real threat. At this, the rest of the lake occupants try to grab a few bites before their aggressive counterparts return.

Ah, what a perfect day on the Gulf Coast!