Brown pelicans
Squadrons of brown pelicans patrol the beaches in single file, inches off the water, then fold up and hit the sea like thrown anvils when the fish show.
The ferry ride in usually provides the first pelicans of the trip, loafing shoulder to shoulder on the channel markers like commuters who gave up on the train. Marker 18, in the owner’s photograph above, is a reliable roost.
Off the beaches they turn into something else entirely. A feeding brown pelican climbs, banks, folds its six-foot wings, and drops head-first into the water with a splash you can hear over the surf; the throat pouch does the rest. Watch a squadron work a bait school off South Beach and you will forget whatever book you brought.
It’s easy to take them for granted until you learn they nearly vanished from the East Coast within living memory. Their comeback is one of conservation’s great wins, and every low-altitude flyby down the surf line is a small victory lap.