Pelicans of Fine Arts - 1 of 2 - a photo on Flickriver

            When the winds are strong, they swoop in over the Palace like parachutists -- born with the gifts and instincts of canopy pilots. If you watch birds in the Bay Area, you've likely seen these squadrons on either side of the Golden Gate Bridge, thousands of Brown Pelicans streaming back and forth across Alcatraz, heading through the gate to the Pacific, bending around Lands End and the old Cliff House ... or catching the currents back over the bridge and toward the Alameda breakwater. In the middle, some stop to rest, and bathe, and fish in the shallows of Crissy Marsh.

A bird expert friend educated me on just how massive the pelican roost is at Alameda Point's Breakwater Island. I'd seen birds there in silhouette, shooting with my telephoto. But, until our conversation, I didn't realize just how many pelicans regularly roost there, and how important a location it is for this species. In 2018, a crew counted 8,086 Brown Pelicans on the breakwater (source: Golden Gate Audubon).

The pelicans in these images are part of this Bay Area mass. On a recent night, the fog came in over the hills instead of through the Golden Gate, and the muted sunset created this painterly matte. I was shooting at ISO2500-3200 which added a bit of grain. 

I love pelicans in the landing position, feet down. They roll with the wind and drop into the marsh, one after the other, splashing in with their flock mates and a few American White Pelicans who loaf alongside. 
 
Brown Pelicans are a miracle of survival and conservation. They came close to extinction. In these massive displays, having defied that unthinkable fate, they still (and always will) take my breath away.

[Olympus EM1markII w/m.zuiko 100-400mm lens, manual/custom white balance, slightly warm, a few adjustments in photos for ipad]

Taken on: August 22, 2022

Tags:

sunset

california

in flight

flying

landing

brown pelicans

pelicans

crissy field

presidio

birds

wildlife

san francisco

palace of fine arts « less

Sets appears in: • Pelicans • San Francisco

Camera: Olympus E-M1MarkII, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec, 100mm, ISO 2500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Olympus E-M1MarkII
Lens:	OLYMPUS M.100-400mm F5.0-6.3
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1250)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	2500
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Other
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Snapseed 2.22.412829873
Show full info

Stats: 312 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder