Pelicans are generally big, ungainly, semi-comical creatures, but if you can catch them as they're dive bombing for lunch you can see their true selves. This is what nature intended for them.
Lunchtime Photo
6 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo”
Comments are closed.
The only thing I know about pelicans is to avoid standing downwind from them.
I once witnessed a sweatshirt that had to be thrown away due to a massive pelican doo doo. One of the most disgusting things I’ve witnessed. It was like a bucket of white chalky water with parts…. ….doused on an innocent tourist.
I am desperately trying to think of something witty to say…
In my last trip to the beaches around Corpus Christi, there was a flotilla (a wing?) of pelicans that flew back and forth along the beach. There was a core group of three, but it would sometimes expand to at least ten. Back and forth, back and forth, over the beach sands. I never noticed any of them cruising over the water, much less "fishing." (Odd, that.)
Pelicans are at home anywhere but standing/walking on land. They are masterful gliders and dive bombers.
I also have to object to this characterization of pelicans. I grew up on the water in Tampa Bay, and have always been mesmerized watching a flock of pelicans fly in tight formation mere inches above the water. They are one of the few birds, in my opinion, that's actually interesting to watch fly.
At least, I've never spent any significant amount of time watching a bird in flight, and certainly not with the frequency I'd actually watch pelicans, which I did regularly.
Very nice photo. I’ve often seen pelicans gliding gracefully low above the surf at Point Reyes. In Christian mythology, the pelican was believed to pierce its own breast with its beak and feed blood to its young, just as Christ sacrificed himself for sinners, etc. This was based on faulty bird observations before good distance optic lenses were invented. Regardless, pelicans are admirably adapted to survive in the wild unless we lace them with DDT, as happened in the 20th century.