Nose Dive

Posted by Steven (Chicagoland, United States) on 22 May 2009 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

Spotting from the Fort Myers Beach, Florida pier a pelican doing a nose dive to catch a fish it spotted in the water. I had been told that the way a pelican dies is that it goes blind from all the diving it does to catch its fish. And when it goes blind, it eventually starves to death. Can anyone vouch for this? Photo taken March 18, 2009.

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Comments (10)

Alun from Cheshire, United Kingdom

He's going at some speed, great shot

22 May 2009 5:31am

amirreza from tehran, Iran

wow
great huntig :)
nice shot

22 May 2009 6:50am

Linda from Riga/Sigulda, Latvia

flying it looks much more gracious, a good catch

22 May 2009 8:37am

zOOm from Paris, France

Nature and elements such as climate can be cruel for animals. Great point of view for this shot. It was probably not easy, but I would have loved more sharpness here.

22 May 2009 2:06pm

@zOOm: I, too was a bit disheartened that it was not clearer. But considering that I was standing on the pier, only about 4'-0" above the pelican, there was only so much time that it was seen in the camera's viewfinder. I had to gauge where the pelican's projected flight path was going to take it, position the camera accordingly and hope that I push the shutter button at the right time. I took quite a few shots before actually capturing it within the viewfinder.

Onlymehdi from Wayne, United States

WOW Great moment

22 May 2009 2:41pm

Mariana from waterloo, Canada

Oh, what a capture ! Excellent ! Where were you standing ? On a bridge ? Flying above a bird ? ha ha

22 May 2009 3:07pm

@Mariana: Take a look at this photo. I was at the same height as the woman in pink, a bit further out from the shoreline, and the pelican was flying right below toward the pier.