Shrimp Boats and Brown Pelicans - go together!
I’ve always had a love of boats and being on or near the water. Unfortunately, my fear of sharks has kept me from having a love of being “in” the water. I’ve painted all kinds of boats for many years. But, it’s just been in the last 12 years or so that I’ve become passionate about Brown Pelicans, photographing and painting them. When I see them both together, boats and pelicans, that excites me! :)
Brown Pelicans love shrimp boats! Perhaps it’s because if they hang out around them long enough they know there will be a free meal coming. They will follow the shrimp boat out to sea and back, raiding or trying to raid the daily catch. When the shrimpers discard unwanted fish or fish parts overboard the pelicans react in a frenzy, all vying for an easy meal.
Why bother diving from hundreds of feet up in the air into a rough sea for one fish, when there are easy pickins in port?
Another reason they tend to hang out and around shrimp boats is that the rigging provides a lookout tower for them. Perched up high they can keep a keen eye out for other fishermen coming in to dock. When one pelican takes off in a flurry, it’s usually because they smell a fish or have spotted incoming. The others will then all flock to the same location.
They love to sun themselves on crossbars and platforms, drying off feathers, resting up and digesting their meals. I think the shrimp boats provide a sense of security for them. They feel at home onboard and other than the occasional mad shrimper upset about stolen shrimp or fish, shrimp boats are a safe haven and a traveling fish market.
I thought I’d share some of my photographs featuring Brown Pelicans and shrimp boats with you. I love the compositions created by combining these large, feathery, long-billed birds with all of the textured, shapely elements of the complex rigging of shrimp boats.
Pulleys, chains, cables, cleats, ropes, ladders, weathered paint from the salty air, massive fishing nets etc… all create wonderful nautical backgrounds when Brown Pelicans perch atop or near a shrimp boat.
Having just finished painting The Maestro, I’m anxious to paint another Brown Pelican. Perhaps one of these images will become my next pelican painting!
Thank you for reading my journal and for your interest in my art and photography. Please check back soon to find out what’s on my easel next! Thanks!
“One of the joys of being an artist is having the freedom to follow my passion….”
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Drawing by William R. Beebe