Crystal Beach Sunset…

I saw a lot of dark clouds gathering as I drove to Crystal Beach on Thursday night. Enough that I thought of texting my friends to ask if we ought to forget the plan for the night. But texting and driving isn’t a good idea, and as it turned out being out for the sunset was a very good idea. And I say this despite the profusion of fire ant mounds, and my ever present flip flops as footwear.

I was the first to arrive and I was amused by some little white birds that were busy hunting along the shore. I looked them up and, as I suspected, they are immature little blue herons. The green legs and two toned beak give them away.

This is a mature little blue heron. What I really liked was the look of the water that was picking up some sunset color as he waded.

There were two white ones plus the little blue and they hunted together the whole time we were there, but I suspect I know who was in charge.

It was when we decided to walk down for a bit to see what other views of the sunset we could find that I saw all the sandy white patches in the grass, a tell tale sign of fire ants. I let that dictate where I stood to shoot. We all liked this view, and I took so many shots like this before the sky really lit up that I missed getting this shot when the sunset was at it’s peak.

Birds flying over at sunset isn’t anything new, but these were pelicans and that really was new.

This was what we were waiting for, the sun to drop below the clouds and light up the clouds.

Another from the phone as I wandered the shore.

The feature photo is the sunset in all its glory. But our fun wasn’t over. We then went to our friends Eddie and Linda’s house and sat outside in the gorgeous garden that they have created. We drank, and ate smoked mullet dip, and talked photography among many other subjects. Such a nice way to spend an evening.