I believe this is a juvenile Little Blue Heron. Maybe they could rename it Little Blue Heron That Starts Off White.

This bird was near the boardwalk that crosses from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean beach at St. Lucie Preserve Inlet State Park, a wonderful place for nature and quiet at the northern end of Jupiter Island. Accessible only by boat… or a very long walk up the beach from the parking lot at Home Sound Wildlife Refuge to the south.

We were there a week and a half ago. Busy holiday time has made me a blog slacker. But now it is quiet Christmas morning and lo, the blog revives. Merry Christmas! The day will be busier soon, with my daughters visiting from the cold north and my husband the airline pilot winging his way home from London.

The pretty green eye of the Little Blue.

The Little Blue Heron is a stand-and-wait predator, rather than a frenetic, dashing-about predator. They watch the water for fish and other small morsels, changing locations by walking slowly or by flying to a completely different site.

A mellow little fellow, easy to photograph.

Also from the boat trip, a Brown Pelican close-up.

Have you noticed the tip of a pelican’s bill? It’s a built-in fish hook!

Also, the bird’s pouch (a “fishing net”) expands to hold up to three gallons of water, which is then expelled, leaving the fish inside.

This looks like a neat movie: Pelican Dreams trailer.

What’s it like to try to get to know a flying dinosaur? Filmmaker Judy Irving (“The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”) follows a wayward California brown pelican from her “arrest” on the Golden Gate Bridge into care at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and from there explores pelicans’ nesting grounds, Pacific coast migration, and survival challenges. The film is about wildness: how close can we get to a wild animal without taming or harming it? Why do we need wildness in our lives, and how can we protect it?

I wish you Peace, Love and Joy this day. And I hope you see a few cool birds.