Tag Archives: brown pelican

Pelicans Overhead

Scooting through some old images, I came across a shoot from a day at San Francisco International Airport. The shoreline at Millbrae provides a great view of operations but it also had quite a variety of wildlife that made the shoreline and the mudflats that it included home. We used to see a load of pelicans to although, for some reason, my later visits didn’t seem to include them. They would glide gracefully just above the water minimising their drag. However, on this occasion, they were a bit higher than usual. I imagine that the airport operations team at SFO are not keen on flocks of birds the size of pelicans in close proximity to airliners. Not sure whether this group had been cleared through the zone or not.

Pelican Formations

When we lived in the Bay Area, I got used to the pelicans being around. Only when you move away do they suddenly become interesting again. I used to enjoy the formations of pelicans touring the bay and to see a bunch of them heading towards us at Fisherman’s Park was fun. They approached us head on before curving around the shoreline and away. Their low level flying is so effortless, I become jealous of their ability to float around the bay with freedom.