When I got to Crescent Lake Park in mid-February it looked like giant marshmallows floating around. I had been here several times this winter but only a few were there. White pelicans are one of the original snow birds. They spend a few months in central Florida before heading back to spend the summer in Canada. If they aren’t here floating in this lake near downtown St. Pete, then they are somewhere on the bay (somewhere in the neighborhood channels north of the St. Pete pier).

There was a small fleet of them floating  in front of me as I sat down on a bench.

As they dispersed I started looking around the lake and realized there were hundreds of them all around the lake.  Most of them were in small pods in all of the corners of the lake.

These were resting and preening on a spit of grass.

These guys were feeding in the shade along a bumper (keeps the garbage out of the pipes)

This guy had caught a big fish in his pouch and his friends started ganging up on him to steal the fish. He eventually swallowed it.

This fleet was having a squabble over something before going back to feeding.

Occasionally some would take flight. Some would fly to the other side of the lake and some went up high and headed toward the bay.

These floating marshmallows are special to this lake. They spend a short time going back and forth between the bay and here. It’s a treat to catch a lot of them on the lake and watch them feeding and going about their day. People walking their dogs or jogging stop to watch them. There were several other photographers nearby watching them as well and we all chatted about how cool they were and what they were doing. I went back the next week so more on these guys later.