Maritime Marine Birds.....

This fine, feathered bird flew in as we were walking by the boat ramp.  He kept tilting his eye at us as we carefully  walked up near him.  Patiently, the bird waited while we clicked away with the cameras.  This was at the Maritime Museum that housed information of coastal wild life, fish, living conditions, as well as fishing conditionings, estuary information, salinity, and tide levels.
    Today was a rather rainy day with intermittent showers requiring us to wear the rain coats and pull out the plastic sleeves to protect the cameras and lens.  There was a bit of wind chill, but we didn't mind as we walked around this rather large rookery at Pickney Island National Wildlife Refuge.  We estimated 159 to 200 large birds and countless smaller, darker ones....    as well as cardinals and wading birds.   As one looked at the trees, you could see loads of white round, feathered, birds... snuggled into a ball with their beaks away under wings.   The birds did make quit a ruckus at us as we slowly worked our way around their pond. 
     Extra 1 is a pelican sitting on a piling.  While he is standing up, the whole head and neck is pulled down tight to the body to conserve body warmth. 
   Extra #2 is looking out from under a bridge, across the water to an island on the other side of Broad River,  We have discovered that there are several Broad Rivers in our country, but this broad river leads up to an estuary that has no fresh, brackish water flowing into.  Therefore, the levels of salinity are a bit higher than rivers which have streams, lakes and other runoffs that bring in fresh water and brackish water from erosion, pollution and silt.