<span class="messageBody"]Every Year from December to mid February the California Brown Pelicans in La Jolla change into their breeding plumage colors, resulting in a bright red pouch and deep black feathers on the their necks. This event attracts wildlife photographers world/nationwide to the cliffs of La Jolla to photograph this nature wonder.

I woke up at 3<span class="text_exposed_show"]:30 and left the house at 4:30 to make it La Jolla before sunrise, when I got there it seemed like a disappoinment morning as the birds never came into view. You would see them flying in and around the area but they only hung out over the cliff. After about 4 hours my patience began to wear off, as I was about to leave, this guy came out of nowhere and landed about 40 yards from me. He started to spreen himself and give me a few poses, after about 30 minutes he got bored and decided to yawn then he took off out to open ocean.

200 miles round trip 5 hours of driving round trip and 4 hours of waiting for this shot...TOTALLY WORTH IT!

This is the classic head throw aka yawning, and it's often unpredictable because pelicans never really tell you when they yawn

Check out the larger version here <span>http://photo.net/photodb/photo<wbr /><span class="word_break"]?photo_id=12479432&amp;size=lg


<span class="messageBody"]<span class="text_exposed_show"]Thanks for viewing and commenting.


<span class="messageBody"]<span class="text_exposed_show"]f/5.6, 1/2000, ISO 200