One Particular Pelican
Ó Copyright, All Rights Reserved,
Barry W. Hollritt,  2003 

On an overcast morning in February I left my Charleston, South Carolina hotel room and wandered out to the Mount Pleasant area north of town.  As I am always drawn to fishing ports it was no surprise that I found a desolate, weather-beaten dock area where a few fishing boats were berthed.  It was a Tuesday morning and my only acquaintances at that time of the week were the fisherman and about a dozen pelicans wandering the dock.  I saw this old character as he plodded along the docks.  He seemed a bit old and unlike most of the others, he was content to just pace around the dock and poke his nose into crevices and places that he might find some food.  As I pulled out my camera, a gentleman along the dock told me that this “particular” pelican was a smart son of a gun.  He said he paced around the dock and was sort of well known.  Because of his notoriety, he was usually given some “leftovers” from the day’s catch.  I got in close to him as he caroused in front of me and I seemed to record a wonderful close-up of a very special bird.  The gaze you see is the gaze that brings him handouts.  The light was soft and the moment is one I’m glad I preserved.  I went off the rest of the day to look for the rarer white pelicans… but this old character has turned out to be quite a special image.