A beautiful, calm, bright evening at the beach.  The water was so smooth and clear.

There was a little Snowy Egret walking along with me at the water's edge.  He caught a fish.

Down by the Don CeSar there was a wedding party.  It was a perfect day for a wedding.

There was a fisherman gathering up his net.

Another Snowy Egret, a larger one, was watching the fisherman attentively.  But first he had a look in the fisherman's bucket.

Today there was a turtle nest marked out, right at the end of our beach path.  The first one I have seen this season.  Maybe this year I can get a good picture of the hatchlings.

There was a sign posted which said that this particular nest has been adopted by the St. Pete Beach Library!

Another low tide yesterday evening.  I saw a large clam which had been left behind on the sand, unable to burrow under.  The white tube on the lower right is called a siphon, through which the clam takes in water.

I also saw several mussels covered in barnacles.  I looked closer and these barnacles were still living!  The video shows them moving.

You'll have to look closely to see the clam siphon moving, and the barnacles waving, in this video.

Another beautiful day at Pass-a-Grille Beach.  The water was calm and clear, and there were lots of little fish in the shallows, near shore.

Little tiny silver fish...

 And long thin fish.

Also noticing the fish was a pair of birds I had never seen before at the beach.  I looked in my handy beach guide when I got home and discovered they were Red-breasted Mergansers (related to ducks).  They paddled along, right up against the shoreline, ducking their heads underwater to catch fish (or mole crabs, I couldn't tell which).

Got one!

There was also a Snowy Egret stalking along the shore, keeping an eye out for one of those little fish.  I love those yellow feet!

I saw the strangest little crab the other day.  The tide had gone way out, and there were shallow pools of clear water all along the beach.  And in one of those clear pools was a pinkish-purply crab, about the size of my hand, with a large barnacle grown onto its back.

And here is a short video of the crab.

If you ever bring food to the beach and you want to keep it for yourself, you'd better keep it tightly closed up.  Gulls are scavengers and always on the lookout for an easy meal.  These gulls were quick to spot the opened tortilla chip bag on this untended picnic blanket.

Got one!

Some of the gulls couldn't figure out how to reach the chips but were still very territorial.  Mine!

Gulls are always hanging out at the Don CeSar Hotel hoping to snag a meal.  They especially like to sit on the beach umbrellas, which give them a perfect view of what the hotel guests are eating.  If someone leaves even so much as a crumb behind, the gulls are quick to pounce on it.

Laughing Gulls waiting for hotel guests to drop some food.

A Herring Gull inspects a beach chair for crumbs.

Even Fish Crows get in on the act...

 I've seen gulls carrying the small containers of mustard or ketchup that come with the hot dogs or hamburgers at the hotel, trying to get them open.  One gull flew up high, dropped the container, then flew down to see if it had come open.

Another windy day, and a very low tide.  There were some Black Skimmers going back and forth just beyond the sandbar, skimming for fish, wheeling around and then skimming in the other direction.  And, far in the distance, a huge cruise ship.

The tide was way out this afternoon, exposing a sandbar.

Between the sandbar and the beach was a shallow pool of water.

The water was so clear.

There was a rather scruffy-looking heron on the beach.