Pelicans

I think of all the sea and water birds, Brown Pelicans are my favorites. They are much more colorful and prettier (IMO) than White Pelicans and a lot more interesting. They hunt from the air, diving down into the water head-first to come up with dinner. This shot was taken on our November trip (continued from below, just a few months later :-). I think it is one of the best shots I've taken -- I didn't have to do any adjustment except resizing to upload here.

This is the same bird, shortly after takeoff. I left most of this picture, including the Laughing Gull in the water, just to show you how large these birds are. And the Brown Pelican is the smallest of the Pelican species.

For contrast, here are a couple of White Pelicans. The one on the right is showing some of his wing-tip feathers, which adds a bit of contrast, but really, I think the white pelicans are rather boring, and plain. You can see, however, that they like these rocks as a perch.

To give the White Pelicans some credit -- they look really nice when they are flying. Black wingtips seem to be common on a lot of white water birds -- pelicans, cranes, ibis, storks all seem to exhibit this trait. I think these flying pelicans contrast nicely with this lovely cloud, and with the perched pelican below.

Day 3 - Parting shots of Fulton

Of course, before we could leave Fulton, we had to feed the Seagulls one more time. I see a lot of injured birds when we feed -- mostly missing feet, but this little guy, with only half a beak, caught my heart. Most sea birds are carnivores, and I suspect this little guy received his injury from another bird while he was still in the nest. That's a guess of course. He was smaller than the other birds, and I don't hold out good chances for a long and prosperous life for him, but you never know...


Of all the pictures I took on this trip, I think this one might be the best. ...and of course, I love pelicans! He almost looks like he's just laying out on the air currents.

Another sharp looking fellow, hanging out on the bulkhead next door to the convention center. With the coloring on the adult brown pelican, I think they are so much prettier than the larger, white pelicans.

OK... off to ANWR

After Christmas Birding

As you've seen by Marc's great Whooper pics below, we made a trip to Rockport-Fulton and the Aransas Natural Wildlife Area. It was a great trip for birds, but less great for me. I was feeling a bit off all week, and now that I review my photos, I'm really disappointed in the outcome. However, there were a few good shots -- and I'm sharing them here.

On Wednesday, when we arrived, we started out by feeding the gulls as usual. The interesting thing about the gulls that gathered at our usual spot was the large juvenile bird, which I am pretty sure is a herring gull.

While feeding the gulls is a lot of fun, and I enjoy taking pictures, they all tend to turn out the same. So here's a couple of Laughing Gull portraits.

You'll notice that they have lost most of the black coloring on their heads -- this is their non- breeding plumage.



And of course -- one of my favorite sea-birds is the Brown Pelican. Here is one sitting in the classic perched pelican pose on a piling.

And here's another in flight -- this particularly shows some of the focus problems I'm having -- maybe I need to adjust my eye piece.