Pelican in Flight by PhrankPower

Photography • Animals • posted on May 29, 2008

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Description

This is a Brown Pelican photographed recently at Pensacola Beach, Florida. Although found in abundance along the Florida/Alabama gulf coast, they're actually on the U.S. Endangered Species list do to usage of the insecticide DDT in the 1950's and 60's. The adult brown pelican is a big bird, and is amazing to watch. When feeding, it's a plunge diver dropping from the air with its wings partly folded completely submerging itself in the salt water, the only pelican to feed in this way. It uses its bill and pouch like a net, scooping up fish and water. Then returning to the air, it strains out the water from the side of its bill, tips back its head and swallows the fish caught. Hopefully on my next visit I'll manage to catch that process on camera. This was shot with a 200mm lens at 1/2000 of a second. It's the 5th shot from our visit to the Gulf Coast two weeks ago. For a colorful shot of the surf at dawn, check out my previous post, Dawn Surf. Have a great day! marshall