Pelican scramble

I enjoy watching the pelicans along the coast. They skim along the top of the ocean, wing tips just barely out of the water. Their flying formations usually have the precision that our Navy's Blue Angels would be proud to emulate. Mostly I see pelicans in large groups, occasionally there is a lone pelican but not often. I have counted upward of forty in a group usually flying in a "V" formation and they can glide without a flutter of their wings for an inordinate amount of time. Truly amazing birds and hard to capture with my camera.

This morning there were several pelican flocks at various levels of flight, some barely an inch above the water, some just 6 to 8 feet off the ground, some very high in the sky and a few even skimmed right by my shoulder. They were all headed north. (Maybe it was the nice tail wind.)

What I managed to capture on camera was truly a surprise when I got home and downloaded my photos. I'll just call it a pelican scramble because these guys were so precise in their flight I don't know how they got so scrambled up for this photo.

Up close they aren't particularly pretty birds, but they certainly are efficient with their built-in grocery pouch and they definitely are magnificent in flight. Always a pleasure for me to watch and remember the old childhood game of "odd or even" a guessing game as to the number in the flock. I still count them, too.