Lake Elsinore is the only natural lake in Riverside County, California. It is in the watershed of the San Jacinto River whose waters don’t always arrive above ground. It’s relatively shallow with an average depth of 22 feet. In my opinion, if you didn’t know it was natural you might think it was a reservoir.

There aren’t a lot of trees or plants on its shores, a typical sign of a natural lake. Due to it’s shallow depth they tend to have a problem with algae, especially in the summer months when the mercury stays around the tripple digit mark. Inspite of all these traits, one tell the lake has is a vibrant bird population. During a recent visit I was surprised to see a large flock of white pelicans. I had to pinch myself because scenes like the one below I’ve only observed on Nature, one of my favorite shows.

I had a big advantage on my trip because my vantage point was from the seat of my kayak, on the water side of the flock. I’m sure I would have scattered the flock if I had attempted my approach on the land side.

I had a 20 year old Sigma lens on my camera and was grateful Lightroom had a lens correction to sharpen things up a bit. I tell myself I’ll ditch this budget lens for the Nikon replacement, especially because the consumer 70-300mm telephoto is a good preformer. But I don’t. I guess one in the hand is worth two in the bush. Mostly I keep it because if it ever takes a swim I won’t loose any sleep. On the other hand, the Nikon D7100 it is attached to remains a keeper and while I’d replace it with something newer I’d sure miss it. We’ve been through a lot together over the last 10 years. It shoots 6.5 frames per second in JPEG mode and with the white balance set correctly, I’m very happy with my birding results.

Enough about the camera stuff. Here’s a few pictures of a flock of American White Pelicans.