We humans are (usually) told when we are small children, that we need to chew our food well before swallowing.
With pelicans, it's the opposite: you swallow your food whole (and never chew it first).
But of course, to do that, you need a large 'bill pouch'. And it has to be flexible, too. Which is why, occasionally, one does exercises that increase the flexibility.
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A short and relatively entertaining sequences of a small group of Pelecanus occidentalus - aka brown pelicans - on the Oregon coast, near the mouth of the Coquille River, in Bandon. After sitting and standing around on the sand, briefly, they took to the air--
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There is something simultaneously both very elegant and very ungainly about watching them fly--
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I wasn't the only being 'watching them' by the way--
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And they're off and running! (as the Announcers at racetracks boom through the P.A. loudspeakers).
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Though in this case, it was flying and not running.
And, truth be told, they were only going a short distance down the beach until reaching another stopping point. And then another leg of their aerial travels.
On a visit to the Gray Whale birthing grounds in Laguna San Ignacio, BCS, I took some time off at the end of the day to photograph activity at the shore.
Cormorant flyby
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Osprey - Success
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Semi-palmated Plover
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Marbled Godwit hunting
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Marbled Godwit moving on
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