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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Australian Pelican, Great Pied Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Silver Gull

Australian Pelican, Great Pied Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, Silver Gull (Image ID 45148)
Photographed byMichael Hamel-Green on Wed 24th Feb, 2021 and uploaded on Fri 5th Mar, 2021 .
Resolution1400x757
Viewed405
ID45148
CommentI had watched as an impressive armada of Australian Pelicans, Great Pied Cormorants, Little Black Cormorants, and Silver Gulls set off on a fishing expedition. While Australian Pelicans are noted for their teamwork in corralling whole shoals of fish into a small confined patch of water, it seems that Cormorants and Silver Gulls are also happy to enlist in the Pelican navy for whatever leftovers they can scavenge. Here the fleet has obviously been successful in arriving on top of a shoal. The feeding frenzy has begun. One of the Pelicans can be seen, pink beak uplifted, with a fish bulging through its very ample pouch, no doubt for later digestion. No-one has described a pelican’s feeding habits better than American poet, Dixon Lanier Merritt, in his limerick: “Oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican!/His beak holds more than his belican./He takes in his beak/Food enough for a week./But I’ll be darned if know how the helican” (Nashville Banner, 22/4/1913).
EquipmentNikonZ7ii Nikon 300mm f4 PF TC1.4 420mm ISO 1250 1/5000th f9 Monopod
LocationWerribee Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Keywordsfeeding/with prey, in flight, adult, behaviour/display
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