Brown Pelican with Fish
Brown Pelican with fish speared on upper bill
By: Pat Coate
On a trip to Myrtle Beach earlier this year, my friends and I were sitting on the beach catching up and enjoying watching some pelicans and gulls feeding about 80 yards or so out in the ocean. In fact, most days we were treated to the sight of pelicans plummeting head first into the rolling waves in search of prey, and it was a spectacle I had not tired of watching. After a bit, we noticed some unusual behavior as one of the pelicans began flailing around and going through all kinds of unusual contortions. I didn’t have my binoculars with me so took a few shots with the telephoto lens and when I loaded them onto the computer saw what was causing the commotion. Not the greatest pictures, but they show that the pelican had speared a fish on its upper bill and was trying really hard to figure out how to make it dinner!
Brown Pelican with fish speared on upper bill – how to get it down the hatch?!?
Brown Pelican with fish speared on upper bill
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Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
I myself make very little effort to eat fish. Especially recently-speared sushi.
4 January 2012 at 10:40 am
The overall look of your site is fantastic, let alone the content!
8 January 2012 at 11:46 pm
Well, well – that is a first for me.
I would never have guessed that the upper bill was sharp enough to penetrate and spear a fish.
I wonder whether the pelican speared the fish on purpose or simply missed when it was trying to scoop it up?
12 January 2012 at 7:07 am
I think we’ve all been there one time or another…
20 January 2012 at 1:22 am