Pelican Photo Dump

For the last couple of years these beautiful American White Pelicans have made a pit stop in Lake Springfield on their way to wherever they are going.

 Naturally, those who like to carry their cameras around, make a point of taking a few photos while these beauties are hanging about.

 I am no exception.

 I was crossing Lindsey Bridge last week when I spotted them. Drove back  home, picked up my long zoom lens and camera and drove back to the spot to click away.

For the first  round of clicks, I shot, or tried to shoot through the chain link fence.

As did this lady .........

Somehow there ended up being five of us (all women) who by chance had seen the pelicans and had decided to stop the car to get a glimpse (click) or two.

A few of the ladies were shooting with their cellphones.  

I am really not sure what kind of photos they were able to capture considering we were yards away and behind a fence.

But of course that did not stop them nor any of us from clicking. 

 Then we all got lucky!

An employee of the park, a supervisor at that, came around and decided to be nice to us.

He unlocked the chain link fence and allowed us to get closer and closer to the pelicans.

The pelicans weren't the only ones flying around. There were a couple of others showing off their form.

"American White Pelicans segregate well into two separate geographic groups. Populations breeding east of the Rocky Mountains migrate south and east, mostly along river valleys, to winter along the Gulf of Mexico. Populations west of the Rockies migrate over deserts and mountains to the Pacific coast. Migration occurs mainly during daylight in flocks sometimes numbering in the hundreds, often flying in the familiar V-formation and using thermals when available. Fall migration is protracted, with individuals lingering on southerly breeding grounds as late as December in mild winters. Spring arrival on breeding grounds is as early as February in Nevada, March in Utah, and April in Wyoming and Manitoba, usually before lakes but after rivers have thawed, providing some foraging sites even if nest sites are inaccessible."

 These snowy white beauties are not to be confused with the pelicans found in Florida.  The major difference between them, besides their color is that the ones in Florida, also know as the brown pelican, dive for fish from the air, as opposed to co-operative fishing from the surface done by the white pelican.

(source)