Bird Watching

I seem to remember that you, dad, have as a hobby bird-watching. I've always thought that that was pretty cool, mostly because it's a demonstration of an overall understanding of many of the variables in the animal kingdom happening around you at that given point in time.

Where we live now is maybe devoid of the major exotic species of birds, but in our local immediacy we do have gulls and pigeons and crows and sparrows and, my favorite to watch, brown pelicans.

I've written a few times before about the Modern Dinosaurs of Long Beach, about watching their interactions and hierarchy (crows vs gulls; sparrows vs pigeons; the huge pelicans ruling the sky and roost), and I may have spoken about the sublime pleasure of watching the pelicans dive-bombing the sea for fish.

Diving pelicans is as cool to see as it is as regular to witness. On any given day, there will either be no pelicans at all, or there will be pelicans diving. If there's none, that just means you missed feeding time, or are too early for it. If the pelicans are something you want to see and record with a camera, it'll only take a few trips to get images you'll like.

I was over at the sand the other day, and I had my camera, but I didn't go to snap shots of the pelicans. It just kinda worked out that way.

I saw one diving, and raced to take a picture. After scanning the image in that brief moment where it shows on my Canon's screen, it looked like all I got was a picture of beach. But, upon closer inspection, visible left of center at the top is the splash of the bird:

Next picture I'm putting here was a Rossian happy-accident, as my finger slipped as a pelican was turning in mid-air. If you can close up on the guy or gal you'll be able to see some cool details:

Here's a diving specimen. Notice the ships in the distance beyond the breaker heading to one of the two adjacent ports:

The brown pelican, while the largest of our local aviary critters, is actually the smallest specie of pelican. The Dalmatian pelican, if I remember correctly, is usually considered, along with the trumpeter swan, one of the two largest flying animals alive today, as the record goes back and forth as to average weight (not wingspan, which is the albatross).

I put this post up because I've been busy and haven't been posting anything anywhere, really, and thought that afternoon getaway stroll yielded some cool pictures.