I get a huge kick out of pelicans. They certainly look like they were designed by a committee. They have a huge floating boat of a body, topped off by an ungainly, massive head and net-like bill. Somehow they manage to take to the air and even seem to have a certain gliding grace in flight. They always remind me of the old flying boats like the PBY Catalina or the Spruce Goose. An odd design, but beautiful in their own way.
This sketch is from photos I got while on a trip to Florida with my brother Ted. They were shot in Little Estero Lagoon on a cold February day. In fact, I found out later that it was actually warmer at home in Michigan than it was in Florida! Despite the cold it was a fantastic trip.
The diving pelican photos below are from Sanibel Island. There were several pelicans diving for fish while dolphins also hunted them from below. It was a good day to be a photographer, pelican or dolphin—but not a fish!
Years ago I came across a partial skeleton of a pelican on a beach in Florida. The skull was broken, but the mandible was in good shape. I was amazed at how incredibly flexible that lower jaw was. It would flex side-to-side like spring steel, yet wouldn’t yield at all up and down. That certainly explained how that giant, scooping net of a lower jaw could expand so much and still manipulate a bill full of fish and water with accuracy. It’s one thing to read it in a book and another thing entirely to hold it in your hands.
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