American White Pelican

I got an annual pass to El Dorado park.  I've been reluctant to get one because the park is so close. I feel guilty driving into a park and paying to enter when I can walk or ride my bike into it for free. But the fact is, we'll use the park more if we can just jump in the car and haul a bunch of picnic stuff and scooters and games and whatnot over there at a moment's notice. I imagine I'll bike into the park just as often and will increase my overall time in the park.

So this weekend, Wendy and I took a picnic lunch over there while Maxine was at a friend's house, and I ended up wandering off with my backpack full of camera gear. I wasn't expecting to see much on my first trip back with my camera in quite a while. But right away I found this guy - a big, male American White Pelican.

I see Brown Pelicans a lot more frequently in Long Beach. Every time you drive across the bridge into Naples, you'll usually see a couple Brown Pelicans perching on the street lights. It strikes me as kind of nice that the more endangered bird is the one we see more often around here.

But the American White Pelican is a beaut, too.  For one thing, they're huge. Wikipedia says after the American Condor, they have the longest wingspan of any North American bird. In mating season, they grow those horns on their bills that they later shed and their skin turns the bright orange apparent in the pictures above.  The one in El Dorado was all by himself and was just hanging out with the ducks and coots. That's a Northern Shoveler and an American Coot with him in the picture above.

So the next day, at my brother's suggestion, we headed down to the wetlands in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve down in Huntington Beach.  It was 90 degrees, so perfect beach weather. Wendy and Maxine found a nice spot in the sand on the beach side, and Richard and I jaywalked across PCH to the Reserve, again with a backpack full of my camera gear.  And again, the first thing I ran across was a bunch of White Pelicans. 

This picture shows a couple of females on the left being visited by a male on the right. The females have a slightly duller coloring to their skin, while the male is a little more brightly colored, has a horn, and is rocking a pretty sweet crest.  The other birds in this picture are adult and juvenile Western Gulls all around the pelicans, and some adult and juvenile Double-crested Cormorants in the back along the water.

It felt great to be back out with a camera, and I feel like I got some great new birds to boot.  

American Pelicans, El Dorado Park Area III (by the glider field) on March 2, 2012 at around 12:00 p.m., and Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve on March 3, 2012, around 1:00 p.m. Shot with Nikon D5000 and Sigma 150-500mm on tripod.