Our favorite birds to photograph are those which are big, slow and colorful. Well, pelicans are all three (if you call white or gray a color), especially when they have their breeding plumage which turns their pouches bright red or yellow. Several years ago we had visited La Jolla to photograph these birds and we decided to do an encore. When the pelicans heard we were returning, they flew our way:
Upon our arrival at the San Diego airport we saw these decals on the floor, and we knew two things:
FIRST, COVID was still around and precautions were still necessary. We worked hard on them, the science still said the risk was manageable, especially if you spend your time outdoors as we do when photographing. Our biggest risk was having to eat out, but in the the 6 days were were there we had only 1 meal inside a restaurant, the rest were either outdoor seating or we were the only folks in the restaurant (not much demand for 10:30AM brunches midweek).
SECOND, we were in surfer country, and we managed to see a lot of them, both with and without wings.
Of course not everyone had a smooth ride like these pelicans did
The pelicans plumage was as we hoped
as was their behavior, which was mostly siting and preening, but really interesting at other times
Of course their most interesting behavior was their head (or bill) throws, when they threw their head back or stretch their pouch inside-out over their neck and chest. While it is not clear why they do this, the most common explanation is that the throw stretches the pouch, helping to maintain it’s flexibility and health.
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In real time it looks like this:
When not preening or throwing the pelicans flew out to sea to fish. While we didn’t see them fishing, they are magnificent flyers:
In addition to the pelicans, there were numerous cormorants.
The males looked their best to attract mates
And spent a lot of time gathering nesting material to build a nest.
The nests weren’t always well placed
But led to eggs and future cormorants.
Our next trip is to photograph another big, slow and colorful bird – the Flamingos of the Yuctan Peninsula in Mexico. Stay tuned.