{"id":7576,"date":"2013-02-20T04:14:02","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T11:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7576"},"modified":"2024-11-17T14:02:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T20:02:48","slug":"brown-pelicans-on-the-gulf-of-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/20\/brown-pelicans-on-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-137097 size-full\" title=\"Adult Brown Pelican in breeding plumage\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876.jpg\" alt=\"Adult Brown Pelican in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"800\" height=\"496\" data-id=\"10485\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27496%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20800%20496%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27496%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-200x124.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-250x155.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-400x248.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-600x372.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876-768x476.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-5876.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Adult Brown Pelican in breeding plumage &#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/750, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The forecast is calling for snow today and there is already a heavy cloud cover so looked back through my files and found some Brown Pelicans on the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gulf_of_Mexico\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gulf of Mexico<\/a><\/span> images taken on a warm February morning in Florida to post today. Brown Pelicans along the coast in Florida are very common and even though they were I tried not to overlook them as subjects for my photography while I lived there.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-137096 size-full\" title=\"Adult Brown Pelican floating on the Gulf of Mexico\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927.jpg\" alt=\"Adult Brown Pelican floating on the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"800\" height=\"571\" data-id=\"14342\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27571%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20800%20571%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27571%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-250x178.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-adult-florida-mia-mcpherson-5927.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Adult Brown Pelican floating on the Gulf of Mexico\u00a0&#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For all of these images I was laying on the sand of the shoreline to\u00a0obtain a low angle perspective, I wanted to be eye level with the pelicans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-137095 size-full\" title=\"Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg\" alt=\"Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"800\" height=\"572\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27572%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20800%20572%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27800%27%20height%3D%27572%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico\u00a0&#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/640, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In this last image I like how the out of focus pelican in the background adds a feeling of depth to this frame and how the beautiful color of the Gulf of Mexico helps the Brown Pelican in the foreground to stand out.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/brown-pelican-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Brown Pelican photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The forecast is calling for snow today and there is already a heavy cloud cover so looked back through my files and found some Brown Pelican images taken on a warm February morning in Florida to post today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,143,25,704,2000],"tags":[4004,4053,3994,5229,5132,5531,4077,4158,4,706,3980,3996],"class_list":["post-7576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-brown-pelicans","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-brown-pelican","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-gulf","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-pelecanus-occidentalis","tag-pelican","tag-pelicans","tag-pinellas-county","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1Yc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15705,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/08\/25\/brown-pelicans-flying-into-the-sunset-and-floating-on-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":0},"title":"Brown Pelicans flying into the sunset and floating on the Gulf of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I worked up two older Brown Pelican images to share this morning taken at Fort De Soto in 2009 and 2008.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelican flying into the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4754,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/09\/adult-brown-pelican-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":1},"title":"Adult Brown Pelican In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) were common year round along the Gulf coast when I lived in Florida. I would see them floating in the water, resting on sandbars and beaches, diving for prey and in flight.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brown Pelicans&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brown Pelicans","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/pelicans\/brown-pelicans\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Brown Pelican in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/brown-pelican-flight-mia-mcpherson-8600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/brown-pelican-flight-mia-mcpherson-8600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/brown-pelican-flight-mia-mcpherson-8600.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/brown-pelican-flight-mia-mcpherson-8600.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15273,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/25\/six-years-ago-today-pelicans-godwits-and-dowitchers\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":2},"title":"Six Years Ago Today &#8211; Pelicans, Godwits And Dowitchers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Six years ago today I was sand crawling on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico at Fort De Soto's north beach photographing pelicans, godwits and dowitchers plus other birds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-billed Dowitcher feeding on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1934,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/02\/19\/brown-pelicans\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":3},"title":"Brown Pelicans &#8211; Feeding Behaviors and Identification","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Brown Pelicans feed by diving head first into the water to trap fish in the pouches of their bills.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelicans about to splash down, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brown-pelicans-bottom-dive-mia-mcpherson-3711.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brown-pelicans-bottom-dive-mia-mcpherson-3711.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brown-pelicans-bottom-dive-mia-mcpherson-3711.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brown-pelicans-bottom-dive-mia-mcpherson-3711.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14546,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/11\/juvenile-brown-pelican-gliding-over-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":4},"title":"Juvenile Brown Pelican gliding over the Gulf of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In Florida it was not uncommon for me to see Brown Pelicans gliding just barely above the surface of the Gulf of Mexico like the juvenile shown in my image.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Brown Pelican gliding over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15219,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/16\/brown-pelican-double-decker\/","url_meta":{"origin":7576,"position":5},"title":"Brown Pelican Double-decker","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Monday and I didn't have any idea what to post this morning so I opted to present this image of two Brown Pelicans flying double-decker style over the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelican Double-Decker, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}