This third and final installment in my little series of pelican photos illustrates the tendency of pelicans to flap their wings in unison with each other, which I mentioned yesterday.All four are not perfectly synchronized, but the two closest birds seem to be flapping together and the two more distant birds are close together in their wing stroke.
When you see a large flock go by, flapping together, it is almost as though the pelican in the front of the line is like the drum major in a marching band.
One of the regular readers of this blog, Brattcat, who is the author of an excellent Daily Photo site for Brattleboro, Vermont, asked a question in a comment about whether the pelicans make noises like geese, which I guess she hears in Vermont. No, they fly by silently, which is a frustration for me as a photographer because often they are already part of the way past before I notice them.
On our travel photo site, Viva la Voyage. we are showing some photos of the holiday season in Vienna, Austria. We hope you find them of interest.
I really enjoyed this pelican flight series. The second shot is my favourite.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to tell what bird this is by that distinctive beak. Nice series of pictures bringing us closer to the subject.
ReplyDeleteso poetic in the air, but pelicans look like such clumsy birds on the ground
ReplyDeletei have only once in my life seen a pelican (when i was in florida) let alone saw them fly over. Nice!
ReplyDeleteThey look much more graceful in this flying formation than they appear when you see them sitting.
ReplyDeletethey all look so beautiful flying so much in sync with nature!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments about my pelican photos. I am really enjoying your series of pelican flights! Lenora
ReplyDeleteThanks for the answer, Dave, and the kind plug. So interesting about pelicans flapping synchronistically. I'll have to pay more attention to the geese when they return in the spring to see if they do the same.
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