This Brown Pelican joined the group and came in with a nice, slow, landing.

And suddenly proceeded to do a ‘semi-crash’ right in front of them all.

He was close to the shore but had enough depth to get under a little.

And next bobbed up and floated around, all happy with himself.

I guess it’s a bird thing.

I have seen them do all kinds of gymnastics, still it doesn’t get old.

This young bird looked to be almost exercising.

They do practice this as juveniles. Some fly up a few feet and drop down head tilted sideways. They dive from big heights when fishing and this is learning how to do it.

Taken at the sand bar end of Bird Key, the high dunes making a nice backdrop.

This dune is man made. The sand was dredged from the bottom of Charleston Harbor. We have a deep water port, but hurricanes change the depth every year.

The cost of adding the sand to this Key was less than other options. The state port wins, the birds win. A who knows, the sand may have started out here before the last hurricane anyway.