The Pelican

The pelicans in this area offer a great deal of entertainment to tourists. We love to see them flying low over the Gulf, in squadron formation, and then, en masse,dive into the water for fish. If they are skilled enough to surface with a fish in their beak, this is when the fun starts. Seagulls are always close by, and they cluster around the lucky pelican, while he squeezes the water out of his bill. The seagulls are hoping he will squeeze out the fish too of course. Then he has to get the fish in the right position to swallow whole. There are many chances in all this for the  pelican to make a mistake and loose the fish.Of course the seagulls are hoping for that and  they will swoop in for the unlucky fish. Now  you can see the fish going down the pelicans throat while he stretches his head up to help the fish pass down ,  I think. The seagulls, see it too and always try to get the fish to come back up, by irritating the pelican. After this performance, it all starts again.

I couldn't get a pelican to sit still, in one position long enough to paint him SO this oil painting on a 12x24 canvas was done from a photo.