A White Pelican And Its Meal

Last week I spent a few days watching the pelicans at the Celery Bog. Friday afternoon I saw a great show between this pelican and the catfish in its mouth here. The pelican had been searching for food for quite some time with no luck. When you fish a small body of water like this one for a few days the fish become harder to find. It rooted in the muck to pull up this catfish and it seemed like it had a great meal. You could tell though that something was not right. Every time that the pelican went to close the fish in and swallow it the fish would return to the air. This happened a couple of times before the pelican finally decided to just throw the fish back into the water. In reality it was a very short encounter, but a fun one to witness. That little fish had a last line of defense that allowed it to swim another day.

When Patience Is Rewarded

After I made this photo I was walking back to my car when I thought about how lucky I was that the pelican was facing the way that it was for the encounter. It was fairly close to me and gave me a great view of the action. All of that was very lucky. It was also a lot of time put in to make the photo. This was the fourth day in a row that I had been out at the bog kneeling in muck watching the pelicans. Prior to Friday I had very little to show for it. Some photos of them swimming looking for food was all. Here things worked out so that I could make a photo that I really liked. Like everything in photography you have to put in the work to get results. Wildlife photography seems to require more time than any other to get the photo. Here luckily for me things worked in my favor.