Seagull perch

I love pelicans - I have endless shots of those goofy creatures. I was shooting some pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico recently when I came upon a fascinating pair - a pelican and his resident seagull. I say resident because for the half hour I watched and photographed the two, the seagull perched on either the pelican's head, neck or wing. I wish I could post the complete series in that I have shots of the seagull perched on various parts of the pelican and shots of him taking off and landing on the pelican. I went with this one to show the perching, but some of the action ones I have probably are more interesting. I also have numerous shots of them swimming side by side making body contact. In one sequence, a tern came close and I have some action shots of the seagull chasing the tern as the pelican watches. I was mesmerized by the half hour I watched this pair and when I finally left, the seagull was still happily perched on the pelican.

Photographically, technically the shot is probably nothing to write home about, but I was compelled to tell this story, and I had a difficult time making show-and-tell choice. The shot lacks detail of the pelican's face and it had to be cropped too much to bring it in.

Shot with a Canon 70D, Canon 100-400- L at 350mm, f10, 1/500 ISO 125