Photos: Pelican spotted near Bug Lighthouse

A pair of kayakers got a rare sight while paddling near the Long Beach Bar ‘Bug’ Lighthouse Saturday — a pelican hunting for its lunch by Orient Harbor.

“There amongst the nets was a rather large seabird, brown and with the characteristically long pouched beak, plunging headfirst after short bursts of flight, into the water after the abundant baitfish swarming through the waters,” Stephen Collins of Bay Shore said in an email to The Suffolk Times.

Mr. Collins speculated the bird, which is seldom seen in the area, was brought north by one of the recent East Coast storms.

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