Wildlife Spotting

To be specific, it's probably a non-breeding adult laughing gull (Larus atricilla). Laughing Gulls seem to be one of the more common gull species along the beaches of North Florida (pan handle) and Alabama. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Laughing_Gull/id I'm planning on saving that for another picture though.

@ dylanmkiley, Well obviously one of the birds is a Gull, however just plain gull discribes a large group of birds. I don't usually bother with identifying them because the immatures look all kinda a like and many of them are distinguished only by slight differences in coloring. It's a pain in the rear. I'm actually more interested in the Sandpiper.

Well, algae blooms are not uncommon in the gulf. The rivers bring in plenty of silt, chemical fertilizers, animal manure, and what not. I do partially think the great concetration of it has to do with the sand bar that I swam to. When I first saw it, I thought it might have to do with the oil spill (oh no, we won't be able to swim... how miserable!) Actually, the oil spill could affect algae blooms in that perhaps it killed off some of the algae's main consumers. I'm really not sure though.