Hi Dave,
interesting take on the pelican in flight and the comp works for me even though I could see including more space on the right and perhaps cropping a little on the bottom. I think this may have been improved by upping the ISO and the shutter speed - there seems to be a little blur on the pelican. I also see what I think is a sharpening halo on the bottom of the bird. Colors looks good to me.
I love the water and shadow, Dave. You got good detail and color in the pelican, though the whites on the back of the head look pretty hot, I don’t think they’re actually blown out. My main problems with the image are that the pelican doesn’t have much room to fly into and the wing position foreshortens them too much and the near wing just blends with the body. Flight shots without wings may be accurate, but they just don’t have the “feel” of a bird flying.
I really like the feel of the pelican coasting along. Dennis is right that a more dynamic wing position could improve the image, but I do like the “feel” here. Colors are beautiful. Like Allen said, it looks like there is some motion blur in the bird. A faster shutter speed would have completely frozen him.