Soaring
An adult brown pelican soars above the Pacific Ocean. The pelicans layover at Yaquina Head on Oregon’s central coast for a few weeks in the fall. I took this in the middle of October 2005, a very simple picture but one I’m fond of. Our cat Scout was taken with it as well, she took a swing at the monitor while I was editing it but fortunately no damage was done.
Diagonal
This picture gives a better impression of how large the wingspan of the pelicans is compared to their bodies. The birds were soaring on the swirling winds near the lighthouse at Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast. When I think of soaring, I think of a bird slowly sailing along, but these birds were moving. You didn’t have much time to track them from the time they came into view and then disappeared again beyond the cliff.
Breaking Wave
An adult pelican flies undaunted past a wave breaking hard over the rocky shore of Yaquina Head.
First Timer
This young bird is probably laying over at Yaquina Head for the first time but by now, like the many other juveniles in the flock, it was soaring with the best of them, its youth betrayed only by its coloration.