Brown Pelican

Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
edited December 5, 2011 in Wildlife
Here is one from my Florida trip, this was taken at about 2 inches off the ground on the beach behind the Sea World Rehab which we went to visit and see what birds had been there. One thing was the amount of Pelican's there, some injured and others to soon be released back into the wild again. The success rate is 90 percent return for the pelican's and one more thing I found out on the visit is that they had one pelican there that was 39 years old.

6425020885_6f742e62ee_o.jpg
Regards - Dennis

Dennis Kaczor Photography

Comments

  • HarrybHarryb Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 22,708 Major grins
    edited November 30, 2011
    Very effective capture.
    Harry
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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited November 30, 2011
    Harryb wrote: »
    Very effective capture.

    Thanks very much Harry.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • deb22deb22 Registered Users Posts: 428 Major grins
    edited November 30, 2011
    Very stunning shot Dennis, and thanks for the info always a good addition to a wonderful post!
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  • NorthernFocusNorthernFocus Registered Users Posts: 1,347 Major grins
    edited December 1, 2011
    Excellent detail. Nicely done.
    Dan

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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 1, 2011
    deb22 wrote: »
    Very stunning shot Dennis, and thanks for the info always a good addition to a wonderful post!

    Thanks very much Deb, and yes the info is always nice to know and understand how many wild birds get returned back again.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 1, 2011
    NorthernFocus wrote: »
    Excellent detail. Nicely done.

    Thanks very much Dan for the comments on this image.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • IntrepidBerkeleyExplorerIntrepidBerkeleyExplorer Registered Users Posts: 80 Big grins
    edited December 1, 2011
    That is a lovely Pelican still. Congratulations!. As with many other birds I get confused over properly identifying them. Video doesn't help, since my best Pelican in motion shots are of them dive bombing for fish in the Galapagos at wide angle. I also photographed some Galapagos nesting activity and two different Pelican species in Africa. It's not hard to distinguish between white and brown Pelicans if entire birds are visible. I defer to your expertise that this colorful bird is a Brown Pelican, while not being totally convinced.
  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 2, 2011
    IntrepidBerkeleyExplorer wrote: »
    That is a lovely Pelican still. Congratulations!. As with many other birds I get confused over properly identifying them. Video doesn't help, since my best Pelican in motion shots are of them dive bombing for fish in the Galapagos at wide angle. I also photographed some Galapagos nesting activity and two different Pelican species in Africa. It's not hard to distinguish between white and brown Pelicans if entire birds are visible. I defer to your expertise that this colorful bird is a Brown Pelican, while not being totally convinced.

    Thanks for the comment on this image. I think that we all get confused with some birds, for me it is the smaller birds and books and videos sometimes just don't help as you mentioned. Wow the Galapagos shooting what a great place to go and using a wide angle lens to see them diving which is very neat to watch pelicans do.

    No it is not hard to distinguish between the Brown and White Pelicans at all. I think that what is confusing you is that when we see a Brown Pelican we ID it as of course a "Brown Pelican" but in fact what you are seeing is a juvenile Brown Pelican. In the image I posted is an adult Brown Pelican which has white on their head and neck and the yellow on the top of their head.

    I hope that this will now convince you that in fact that this is a Brown Pelican now. If not please let me know why you are still not convinced that it is not.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • PGMPGM Registered Users Posts: 2,007 Major grins
    edited December 2, 2011
    Dennis, I love this one! And how fascinating that they have such a high success rate, not to mention a 39 year old Pelican! Best, Pam
  • jwearjwear Registered Users Posts: 8,013 Major grins
    edited December 2, 2011
    a white is almost 100% white and as you see this is a white head only and is a non breeding color for a brown . If you look at a photo of the 2 it is an easy pick .Not like a sparrow headscratch.gifdunno%%$^&** or a shore bird. Oh yes and the shot is a very nice portrait thumb.gif
    Jeff W

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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 3, 2011
    PGM wrote: »
    Dennis, I love this one! And how fascinating that they have such a high success rate, not to mention a 39 year old Pelican! Best, Pam

    Thanks very much Pam, and it is fascinating to learn about things like this as I was not aware of the life span of these birds.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 3, 2011
    jwear wrote: »
    a white is almost 100% white and as you see this is a white head only and is a non breeding color for a brown . If you look at a photo of the 2 it is an easy pick .Not like a sparrow headscratch.gifdunno%%$^&** or a shore bird. Oh yes and the shot is a very nice portrait thumb.gif

    Hi Jeff and thanks for the extra info and the image comments.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • puzzledpaulpuzzledpaul Registered Users Posts: 1,621 Major grins
    edited December 4, 2011
    Nice job, Dennis - like the pov and oof fg :)
    An interesting shape to crop / compose ...
    Beanbag?

    pp
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  • PacificklausPacificklaus Registered Users Posts: 118 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    Really nice shot!
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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    puzzledpaul wrote: »
    Nice job, Dennis - like the pov and oof fg :)
    An interesting shape to crop / compose ...
    Beanbag?

    pp

    Thanks very much for the comments and kind words on this image ect..

    Beanbag, no in fact my tripod that I had with me goes way down to the graund about 2 inches and that is what I used for this shot.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    Pacificklaus wrote: »
    Really nice shot!

    Thanks very much.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • puzzledpaulpuzzledpaul Registered Users Posts: 1,621 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    Dennis Kaczor wrote: »

    Beanbag, no in fact my tripod that I had with me goes way down to the graund about 2 inches and that is what I used for this shot.

    Dennis, I'm somewhat intrigued ... possibly even puzzled :)

    Would you mind providing a few more details about this rig, please - what tripod / head combo you were using ... and I'm assuming you were using either the 300 or more likely your 500mm?

    Using a tripod based rig, the lowest I can get gives me 6in of daylight between the underside of the hood (500mm) and the ground.

    This is using an old 5 series ali Gitzo with short(ish) legs in the lowest of the 3 positions, all of the telescopic legs removed and a (thinnish) beanbag placed on the top clamping ring - no head used.

    Whilst I use other kit (that I've made) to get much lower, I'm wondering if I've missed something blindingly obvious re a tripod based setup - especially when using fairly big lenses.

    A pic would be great - but can understand if you don't have time, etc.

    Thanks

    pp
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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    puzzledpaul wrote: »
    Dennis, I'm somewhat intrigued ... possibly even puzzled :)

    Would you mind providing a few more details about this rig, please - what tripod / head combo you were using ... and I'm assuming you were using either the 300 or more likely your 500mm?

    Using a tripod based rig, the lowest I can get gives me 6in of daylight between the underside of the hood (500mm) and the ground.

    This is using an old 5 series ali Gitzo with short(ish) legs in the lowest of the 3 positions, all of the telescopic legs removed and a (thinnish) beanbag placed on the top clamping ring - no head used.

    Whilst I use other kit (that I've made) to get much lower, I'm wondering if I've missed something blindingly obvious re a tripod based setup - especially when using fairly big lenses.

    A pic would be great - but can understand if you don't have time, etc.

    Thanks

    pp

    Paul, first of all I don't have a picture of the gear but I think that I will do that on a nice day, as I have been asked this question before.

    Now I'm using a Nikon 500mm and the Gitzo 3530-LS tripod which I bought before my trip as my other tripod had a center column in the middle that I could not remove it for safety reasons of dropping the camera gear.

    Now the 3530-LS goes down as 2 inches to the ground, and attached is the Ball head.

    Gitzo-3530.jpg

    Wimberley WH-200

    wh-200-head.jpg

    Here is the head that I use with my tripod, and the Gitzo 3530-LS has 2 sections for legs, as I wanted only 2 for extra stability. With this setup, I guess I'm about 4 to 6 inches off the ground in total and that is good enough for me. I also sometimes with bring a bean bag with me, but I needed to keep the weight down on this trip.

    I really found that the 3530-LS and the WH-200 worked fantastic and now I don't think I need the bean bag as much, plus I'd rather keep the camera gear away from the beach sand and or water.

    I hope this helps in some way for you
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
  • puzzledpaulpuzzledpaul Registered Users Posts: 1,621 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    Dennis Kaczor wrote: »

    I hope this helps in some way for you

    Dennis, thanks for taking the time to post this info and yes, it's helped to give me a better understanding of your setup.

    On the occasions I use a tripod+head, rather than other stuff, my setup isn't vastly different from yours, albeit based on a video head rather than a ball one :)

    Thanks again

    pp
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  • Dennis KaczorDennis Kaczor Registered Users Posts: 2,413 Major grins
    edited December 5, 2011
    puzzledpaul wrote: »
    Dennis, thanks for taking the time to post this info and yes, it's helped to give me a better understanding of your setup.

    On the occasions I use a tripod+head, rather than other stuff, my setup isn't vastly different from yours, albeit based on a video head rather than a ball one :)

    Thanks again

    pp

    Not a problem at all Paul, and good that you got some insight of my setup. It all boils down to what works for us and what we feel comfortable with. As I mentioned, having this new tripod really has helped when I want to get those low angle shots and I will have to post one more of my Pelican images.
    Regards - Dennis

    Dennis Kaczor Photography
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