Was It Something I Said?!

This past weekend I noticed a brown pelican that was calmly floating along in the salt marsh enjoying a pleasant afternoon. As I approached, it seemed to be giving me kind of a wary look and then proceeded to vacate the premises. I don’t believe I made any comments which could be construed as being rude, and normally the pelicans don’t care much about what’s going on around them. Sometimes I think a marching band could come through and they would just simply continue on fishing.

It can’t be that there was something about my appearance that it didn’t care for. The alligators seem to like me OK enough, you would think the pelicans would be happy to see me as well.

He was probably leaving anyway to go look for his friends. Yes, that must be it…

Pelican Leaving The Marsh

Pelican Leaving The Marsh

Pelican Leaving The Marsh

Pelican Leaving The Marsh

56 thoughts on “Was It Something I Said?!”

  13. This pelican has a band on its right leg. Wonder how many pelicans have been banded in the area that you are shooting these great scenes. Beautiful brown color of this pelican. I see that no one else mentioned the band. I thought for sure someone other than I saw that it is a banded bird. The brown pelican was endangered for quite a few years until it made a come back after DDT was banned. I think that pesticide was the main culprit for causing the thinning of the eggs leading to cracks in the eggs and thus killing the embroyo. That also happened to the American Eagle and lots of other birds as well.

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    • We see quite a few banded brown pelicans, more then any other bird. I rarely see a banded GBH or egret (other then Radar, you can look him up).
      I do have pics of a flying black skimmer with a transmitter attached to his leg.

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  15. The mystery is solved in the last shot. His hasty departure has nothing to do with you – he had to make an appointment with his parole officer. (He IS wearing an ankle bracelet. Probably stole someone’s fish).
    As expected, great shots.

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    • Yes that must be it, he is wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet. He is no doubt on parole for stealing seafood dinners off of the plates of guests at the nearby waterfront dining establishments.
      Thanks I’m glad you liked these pelican pics!

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  17. Brilliant shots as always, Phil! I love how you focused on the eyes on the first photo, it’s as if he is just in front of me with that questioning look.

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  20. Beautiful bird. You weren’t wearing red were you? Or even orange? I wouldn’t have thought so going birdwatching/photographing. I’ve noticed wearing red has a really bad effect on normally friendly dogs.

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    • This is a juvie brown pelican, I kind of like the adults better but the juvies are cool.
      Funny you should mention orange coats though…just last week some guy showed up wearing a glowing radioactive bright orange jacket and kept scaring all the bird away.
      I was not wearing a bright color. 🙂

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  21. I love pelicans. The first time I saw one for real in Florida I was so taken aback by their size and the fact that these cute but strange birds were just sitting about the place. What else would they be doing? It was a strange sight for a Brit is what I’m trying to say I guess. I’m sure it’s absolutely nothing you said Phil.. 🙂

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    • We have several waterfront dining areas around here which are often close to boating marinas so there are often huge pelicans just sitting around looking cute. 🙂
      Thanks for looking and commenting!

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    • Thanks so much I’m happy you like these pelican pics!
      The pelicans can be a bit odd around here at times. There will occasionally be one that I think would hop in your car if you invited him. 🙂

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