More shots from Gandy bridge beach

The tide was low and a handful of skimmers and laughing gulls were pretty far out away from the beach.

A great blue heron watching over the bay.

The utility tower from the other end of the beach. If you're flying into Tampa during the day it's always good to get a window seat. You look down over the water as the plane is landing.

I was so busy watching an osprey flying by that I didn't even notice a dolphin swimming close to shore. I caught him just as he headed back out of the bay.

A lonely juvenile night heron on the sea wall.

Gandy beach is a small beach before you cross the bridge to go into south Tampa. It's a bay beach, not on the gulf, and is across from a power plant. It's one of the few beaches in the Tampa bay area that you can drive on. Dogs are allowed so there are usually a handful of people with their dogs running around. The St. Petersburg Audubon was able to get the city to put up concrete barricades recently so that you can't drive on the end of the beach. This way the birds have a small sanctuary to rest in. The beach gets a lot of migratory shorebirds stopping over in the spring and fall and they need their rest. If you were a red knot and had just flown in from Chili or Argentina and were on your way up to Canada, you'd be pooped. You wouldn't want to be chased by cars, dogs or kids. So right when I get there I park and start to walk along the beach and I see this truck heading for the concrete barricades. I think "He's going to stop when he gets there and turn around." But no, the tide was so low that he drives his truck around the barricades. First he stopped and read one of the big signs that says "No entry! Vehicles prohibited." Then he drives around it. I don't know where he thought he was going. I guess he thought the beach continued on but it ends at the big red utility tower. When he drove back around I yelled at him and pointed to the sign. He ignored me and peeled across the sand and left.