Bolsa Chica Waterfowl
Over at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve on Sunday, I got some pictures of birds I haven't gotten before. I'm not sure I've even seen any of them right here around El Dorado Park. The American White Pelicans and Red-tailed Hawk I shot in the wetlands, on the other hand, I managed to shoot on consecutive days at both locations. But these guys below - well, for now, I've only seen them in the wetlands, so they get lumped together in this catch-all post instead of meriting their own individual postings.
Later, much deeper into our hike, we saw another male Blue-winged Teal with what I assumed was a female. When I looked them up later in my National Geographic "Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America" and California Natural History Guide "Introduction to Birds of the Southern California Coast," I saw that what I had taken for a female was actually a Cinnamon Teal.
This is a Greater Scaup. Very pretty light-blue bill on him.
As we were leaving, after I'd put my camera back in my backpack, we saw this beautiful bird: a Reddish Egret. (Sometimes they don't try very hard when they come up with the names.) He was fishing very enthusiastically and successfully by running around like crazy and squawking loudly. Right next to him was a Snowy Egret, who was a polar opposite in terms of fishing style. Where the Snowy was the picture of cool restraint, the Reddish looked like a total dork. Just imagine two fishermen on a pond, one all quiet and serious, and the other splashing around through the water hollering, and the splashing-hollering one was catching all the fish. It was something like that.
Photographed at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve around 1:00 p.m. on March 4, 2012. The Reddish was shot with a 70-200mm lens, and all the rest with a 150-500mm.
The two in the picture above are Blue-winged Teals. We saw them right when we entered the Reserve, as we were crossing the footbridge. That's a male and a female above.
Later, much deeper into our hike, we saw another male Blue-winged Teal with what I assumed was a female. When I looked them up later in my National Geographic "Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America" and California Natural History Guide "Introduction to Birds of the Southern California Coast," I saw that what I had taken for a female was actually a Cinnamon Teal.
This is a Northern Pintail. Again, I had to look him up in my field guides and on the Cornell website after I got home. I don't know what these things are when I'm out there until after I've written about them.
This is a Greater Scaup. Very pretty light-blue bill on him.
As we were leaving, after I'd put my camera back in my backpack, we saw this beautiful bird: a Reddish Egret. (Sometimes they don't try very hard when they come up with the names.) He was fishing very enthusiastically and successfully by running around like crazy and squawking loudly. Right next to him was a Snowy Egret, who was a polar opposite in terms of fishing style. Where the Snowy was the picture of cool restraint, the Reddish looked like a total dork. Just imagine two fishermen on a pond, one all quiet and serious, and the other splashing around through the water hollering, and the splashing-hollering one was catching all the fish. It was something like that.
Photographed at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve around 1:00 p.m. on March 4, 2012. The Reddish was shot with a 70-200mm lens, and all the rest with a 150-500mm.
Comments
Post a Comment