American White Pelican Takeoff Flight Sequence

A few years ago, I was fishing on Lake Pueblo in Colorado and spotted this American White Pelican sitting on a stump sticking up out of the lake. I got my camera ready and, using the trolling motor, slowly drifted toward the big bird. I was lucky to get fairly close before he decided to takeoff and I was able to get about a dozen shots of him struggling to get airborne.

Then, I combined six of the images in photoshop to show this progressive sequence of the pelican's attempt to fly. They do have to work very hard to get in the air! :-)