My Florida Sunsets #16

It seemed like I had just been to the Sarasota Bay front to watch a sunset, but it had been almost a month. You never know what you are going to see when you go to watch a sunset and this one had a big surprise! I met my friend @danielhime and we had a good talk while waiting for the sun to set. There were more people than usual at the bay front as there was a show at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall that was at the south end of the parking lot we parked in.   

I had gotten then just before Daniel, so I started to get some pictures of the wildlife that was around. As, you may or may not know, I am a birder, so I gravitate toward the birds. Here are some Laughing Gulls just hanging out. Did you know there is no such bird as a Sea Gull? That is just a generic term used by non-birders.

There were some nice wispy clouds around, so I thought we might have a great sunset. I am not that big into clouds, so I'm not sure exactly what kind these are.

In the distance, I saw a whole flock of birds land in the water. I had my binoculars with me, so I had a look. I couldn't quite make out what they were by sight, but being a birder, I knew they probably could only be one bird. They were Red-breasted Mergansers, that come to Sarasota from up north for the winter. I had seen then up close on a few boating trips I had been on. They were too far away to get a good picture or video. But, after a few minutes to might surprise they came flying right toward me. I change my phone to video mode quickly and got the video below. It was quite a site to see!

I don't have any still pictures of these birds myself, so here are two that I found on iBirdPro with the appropriate credit to the photographers.

Very cool birds!

Just after that a boat towing a person behind it came in from the bay.

Daniel had just missed this amazing site. I noticed a guy fishing just to the left of where we were sitting and a nice sea grape tree hanging down.

I saw a grouping of palm trees with the nearly full moon coming up behind them. I always like these kind of pictures.

The sun was starting to go down and I found this bench for a perfect spot for a sunset picture. You saw me sitting there in the first picture of this post, here is the one I took of Daniel.

Here is the sun just going down between two buildings on Longboat Key, on the other side of the bay.

We started to get some color in the clouds, but I don't think it was as good as I had hoped for. You just never know what you are going to get with a sunset.

I thought I would get some more palm tree pictures.

What was that?

The fisherman was still going at it!

It was strange that after the sun had set for about 15 minutes, the colors in the sky got more blue in them. I thought this was very cool.

It had been a very good sunset, not fantastic, but well worth coming to see! I had some great conversations with Daniel and had gotten some good picture along with a few surprises by the birds. It was a great evening!

100% my work except where noted.