Biking on Coquina Beach, Longboat Key

My husband and I recently took our bikes to Coquina Beach, which is located on Longboat Key near Longboat Pass.  The trip would have been even more fun if my bike tire hadn't popped.  It's hard not to have a good time in such a lovely spot though. 

Here are some pictures I took from the bridge over Longboat Pass before my tire popped. 

 

 

There aren't really that many shells worth collecting on Coquina Beach (at least not that day), but the water is great for swimming, and the sand is beautifully soft.  There is also a nice area equipped with picnic tables, shaded by the lovely but invasive Australian pines.  The bike path goes along the beach under the shade of the pines. 

 

The beach itself is lined with sand dunes and sea oats.

 

 

When I can't find any good shells, I fall back on my second favorite beach activity which is bird watching.  I love how the different sea birds all seem to have distinctive personalities.  The seagulls are my least favorite because they are always grouchy and squawking at other birds and stealing food.  I've even seen them land on the backs of fishing pelicans in order to steal their catches.  This is totally unnecessary as seagulls also have webbed feet and can swim just like the pelicans. 

 

Pelicans on the other hand seem pretty laid back.  They glide along on a breeze and fish and rest with a really easygoing attitude about them.  I also enjoy how graceful they are in the air and in the water in contrast with how awkward they are on land.  I love it when they do this:

 

 

 

My favorite sea birds are the sandpipers, sanderlings, turnstones, willets, and plovers; they all look pretty similar. They don't have webbed feet, but they eat bugs found in the sand right in the surf, so they run in and out of the surf with tiny, skinny legs, and they always seem to know exactly how to keep from getting too wet or washed into the sea.  They are very cute, and I've never seen them bother other birds like the seagulls do. 

 

 

Then there are the egrets.  I love their yellow feet.  They kind of crouch as they walk along the beach looking for food, and then when they see something, they dart very quickly.  I also love the way their feathers seem to be a particularly wispy texture; they blow in the wind beautifully. 

 

 

 

Lastly, the largest and most majestic of the sea birds here:  the heron.  They walk along the beach very slowly with great poise.  Often they stand in one place for great lengths of time, almost posing for the people taking pictures. 

 

 

That concludes our beach trip for that day.  We'll be going back to Coquina Beach soon with my newly replaced bike tire, and that will mean...more pictures later!!