We’re used to seeing seagulls and pelicans in the Keys, but the Royal Tern is not a bird that I recognize from our part of Florida, though it appears to be indigenous to the Gulf coast.

Here’s one (foreground, right) from our beach walk this morning.

We had fun watching the birds. This gull was playing around with a little crab and he wouldn’t even give the crab up to avoid my approach.

Dale went for a run early and when she got back to the bungalow, we went for a walk back up to the public beach (from which she’s returning in this picture) for an all-you-can-eat pancake and sausage breakfast.

On the way, we passed this treehouse that someone built in a small strand of Australian Pines, no doubt for watching the sun set over the Gulf.

Our breakfast chef was very energetic.

Here’s the view from where we ate.

On our walk back to the bungalow…

… I had an artistic impulse…

Sand castles and surf.