White Pelicans At Lake Morton

In the last couple of months we have had an influx of white pelicans coming into the area and they have chosen Lake Morton in Lakeland, FL as a favorite hangout.

This week I made a visit to the lake and was able to get a few shots of our winter visitors even though the weather was pretty cold, blustery and rainy. The pelicans are not year-round residents so they don't have the same feeling of ease around people that the swans and ducks have that live here all year. They are pretty skittish and stand-offish so you have to have a long lens to get any kind of decent shot. They are NOT going to let you get very close.

They can look pretty clumsy on land but in flight they are surprisingly graceful. Unfortunately, the weather conditions was not conducive to much flying, so I had to restrict my shots to pelican portraits instead.

Here are a few samples of my visit to Lake Morton this week:

Enjoying the sun while it made it's brief presence felt

Stuffing that huge beak under feathers seems to help them stay warm

White pelicans have a rather odd appearance but they are beautiful too

Here is a group of pelicans trying to stay warm by huddling together 

while they keep a close eye on what I'm doing