So, here’s a thing.  I like to take wildlife photos and rarely photograph captive animals.  I just don’t like seeing animals in captivity.  I make an exception here for this Dalmatian Pelican on a couple of counts. 

First, this was the first Dalmatian Pelican I’ve ever seen.  They are huge (11’ wingspan), weird and ungainly, almost comical, breathtakingly strikingly elegant, and endangered.  I just had to share this one.

Second, they are unnecessarily endangered.  I possibly already mentioned this already but this pelican and five others are part of a breeding and reintroduction program at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust.  

The WWT is an organisation that I’m very happy to support.  If you aren’t aware, the WWT was founded by Sir Peter Scott a superb artist and wildfowl hunter until he realised the damage to the environment and hunting was having on of wildfowl populations.  He became a conservationist before it was even a recognised word and profoundly influenced the global conservationist movement.  Indeed his approach was to conserve environments and ecosystems rather than just focus on individual species.  

Their work, in recent years, has also included reintroduction programs to return extirpated (locally extinct) species or where they are in peril of total extinction.  Hence, the loop back to this portrait of a Dalmatian Pelican.

It has been 2,000 years since Dalmatian Pelicans were resident in the British lsles.  Perhaps, just perhaps…

Nikon D500, Nikon 500 PF f/5.6.  f/5.6,  ISO 400 and 1/640 s.  I have to admit the long lens had me back pedalling a fair bit to get the framing I wanted.  That’s pretty unusual with birds.  Like I said these are very big birds.