When I first photographed a pelican, it was a ways off, and I almost had to tell people looking at the picture what it was. Then, I started photographing pelicans at a closer range paddling and then flying. A few years ago, I realized I had thousands of images of pelicans in flight. Since I greatly enjoyed watching them, I knew I had to shoot something more exciting. I spent several hours with binoculars watching pelicans to witness a behavior I had not photographed when I noticed that when a pelican caught a fish, there were times when the fish was visible for a few seconds before a pelican would swallow it. The larger the fish, the longer it took to get swallowed. From then on, I spent countless hours closely watching pelicans in hopes they would catch a fish and that I would be able to photograph it before it got swallowed. Patience (not my strong point) paid off as I now have dozens of feeding shots like this one. Sometimes you lay the camera down and just watch wildlife to learn their behaviors and characteristics. You will learn something that is absolutely amazing even if you don’t get a picture.
