Pelican Practice

[Every Miles A Memory]

Sometimes you find the strangest places to take photos. A friend and I had been talking about different shots that would be fun to try when she told me she thought it would be cool to keep a bucket of bait fish in the boat with us.

Her idea was when the Brown Pelicans follow the boat begging like they always do while we're on our weekly boat/birding excursions, we could toss out some bait fish to keep them around while taking photos of them up close.

Before she even finished telling me that idea, her A.D.D. brain kicked in and she said "OMG! Why haven't we thought of this yet? My cousin Danny cleans fish down at Fishbonz (The Local Fishmarket) on a daily basis. When he's cleaning his days catch, the pelicans gather around begging for the scraps he throws back in the water!"

As soon as she was done telling me this idea, she called Danny and told him that the next time he was coming back into the docks with a boat load of fish, she wanted him to call her so we could come down to take photos.

This morning she called me and I grabbed the cameras and headed out to see what we could come up with.

Me standing on the Dock while the Pelicans go crazy at the fish scraps being thrown over my shoulders - Photo by Luz Kraujalis

I figured if nothing else it would be a fun way to practice on moving birds and practice my technique of focusing and framing the birds while they're moving fast. It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be.

Brown Pelicans going after a mullet being tossed in -
Shot with a Canon 5D with a Canon 16-35 f/2.8 Lens

It was basically a free for all and the Immature Brown Pelicans are way more aggressive than the adults. They come right up stealing the scraps away from the adults. They literally reach into the adults pouch and steal the food out.

Immature Brown Pelican with some fresh fish in the pouch -
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Here's a collection of what I came up with after about 45 minutes of standing on the dock while Danny threw fish scraps over my head....LOL Just another day in Cedar Key.

Brown Pelican Standing Guard on the Docks of Cedar Key
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Immature Brown Pelican with fresh Breakfast
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Brown Pelican diving after a thrown fish
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Eyes on the Target - Brown Pelican staring at the Fish Cleaning Station
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Brown Pelican with fish tail hanging out of its bill
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender​

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

At Times it would become a feeding frenzy with the pelicans all fighting over the scraps. Water would be getting splashed all over the cameras and it was quite the commotion
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender

Probably my favorite shot of the morning. The gulls would sit and hover over the pelicans as they would flip the fish parts around in their bills. When the gulls would see the opportunity, they'd swoop down and grab ahold of the food. Numerous times the gulls would be fast enough to snag the fish right out of the pelicans bill. This time the pelican snapped down and the two birds played a tug-o-war for some time as neither wanted to let go of breakfast
Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS with a 1.4x extender​

When all the fish were cleaned up, I was covered in scales, a fine mist of salt water and stunk like raw fish. I thanked Danny and Luz and was back home at work before 9:30am. Not a bad way to start the day.