Saturday, during our visit to the cliffs at Point Vicente, we saw this flight of California Brown Pelicans soaring along the shoreline in the updrafts.
The four lead pelicans are seen in the image below. You can see the entire flight of ten by clicking on the image. See this article for a close up of a California Brown.
The eleventh bird in the large picture is a seagull who was also soaring the cliffs.
I love to watch the pelicans fly and dive when I’m down at the water.
I think that gull looks a little out of place!
Great job!
I was taking a video of the flight when they passed by the point. Although it wasn’t very good ‘publishing’ quality, I did notice that the smaller seagull was having to beat his wings to keep up while the pelicans lazily soared on the updrafts. He (the gull) was indeed out of place!
I think the seagull was like a pelican groupie or something.
If you ever saw the movie Jumanji, you may recall the asthmatic rhino bringing up the rear of the jungle stampede – this poor gull was reminiscent of the wheezing critter trying to keep up.