Fight! Fight!

On one of our 'summer field trips' we went to the Santa Cruz wharf.

There we saw a large amount of pelicans. They are quite large up close.

And they are not timid birds. They get quite aggressive especially when they are hungry.
We witnessed a fight between a sea lion and brown pelican on who would get the dead fish..

Guess who won?

Then the seagulls came to take a turn with the pelican...

Guess who won?

We saw one resting (not sure if this was the same one that was fighting before).

We got quite close to it.

It's beak is enormously long and they do not look friendly. I think someone tried to pet it and it snapped it's long beak at him.

Later we checked out the sea lion lounge (under the pier)

One was quite responsive and posed for me when I asked him to look into the camera.

Adorable face!