Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
Channel Islands Harbor
Oxnard, California
This pelican was having a difficult time. The fish is just the right size but he couldn't get it turned for a head-first swallow, and there's no way this spiny meal would go down tail-first. I watched him try to flip the flopping fish around for 5 - 10 minutes before he started to feel foolish, flew off with his catch to somewhere less public.
The intended meal is a rockfish of some kind, possibly caught in the harbor - a few cabezon, sugar bass etc. live there. More likely it was discarded by a fisherman from a bait tank where it didn't belong. Wherever it came from it was very much alive, and and very much averse to the prospect of being swallowed.
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
Channel Islands Harbor
Oxnard, California
This pelican was having a difficult time. The fish is just the right size but he couldn't get it turned for a head-first swallow, and there's no way this spiny meal would go down tail-first. I watched him try to flip the flopping fish around for 5 - 10 minutes before he started to feel foolish, flew off with his catch to somewhere less public.
The intended meal is a rockfish of some kind, possibly caught in the harbor - a few cabezon, sugar bass etc. live there. More likely it was discarded by a fisherman from a bait tank where it didn't belong. Wherever it came from it was very much alive, and and very much averse to the prospect of being swallowed.
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife