The Mighty Pelican

January 31, 2015





A snowstorm got a lot of the folks in the northeast a little miffed last week. #Juno dumped about 30 inches of snow across the region and progress was halted. No buses, trains, planes or automobiles. Temperatures dropped into the single and low double digits. During all this madness, I was at a nature preserve shooting pelicans and other birds…with my camera.

I’m fortunate to know people who have a house on Sanibel Island, FL and I try to make a trip south each winter. This year, the trip coincided with the snow. But enough about the warm vs. cold geographic debate. I wanted to share in this post the way pelicans land.

Lots of birds just put their feet down and stop on a branch or in the water. ‘Nuf said. The mighty pelican is not a lot of birds. Though it is a LOT of bird. So it needs a different approach. To land, this beast of a bird actually waterskis to a stop. I caught it on film (or digital pixels if you’re going to be particular). Here’s what it looks like…

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And done. It’s pretty cool. I highly suggest getting out of the cold and making your way south some winter to see this. Chat soon!