Birds of San Elijo Lagoon II

On April Fool's Day, we chose to go to San Elijo Lagoon and hike the Annie's Canyon trail and it was seriously worth it. Many birds I have never seen in the area were spotted and identified by our family! The trail itself was actually really beautiful and the viewpoint was breathtaking. A bird even "April Fooled" my mom and this happened twice by the same species, but I'll come to that later. Let's start at the first really neat bird spotted and identified today which was... (drum roll please) a California Thrasher. Cool, right! Here is a link to the song of the California Thrasher. (I didn't take the video.) California Thrasher Song 

The California Thrasher of San Elijo Lagoon

That's pretty amazing, right? But that is not very surprising compared to something you will never guess. Is it a) A harrier, b) A white pelican, or c) A green heron? Do not scroll down quite yet; guess the answer first.

The correct answer is b) A white pelican. Yep, a pelican in a marsh. Did you guess right? If you did, I'm amazed. It was totally unexpected! My mom thought it was a pelican at first but I was all, Naw, a pelican in a marsh!? It is probably an egret. And guess what, it was a pelican. Now I haven't seen a white pelican in the wild before, so that was totally new! I loved it! Something you should know is that pelican was huge. Larger than a great egret, definitely. It was also beautiful and reminded me of a feather duster's soul in a bird's body. I mean it. Just look!

The White Pelican of San Elijo Lagoon

This was when we reached the Annie's Canyon trailhead and took the strenuous One Way Loop. It was crazy. We soon reached a part that was about a foot and a half wide and my parents could hardly fit and neither could I. After we finished that, we reached the top of the viewpoint and this was our view.

Wigeon Pairs

Lesser Goldfinch

Gadwall pair

Twice my mom was fooled by a Mallard which she mistook for a Teal of some sort. The following two pictures are of a Mallard duck. Before looking at the third one, guess what is going on here.

You probably didn't guess mating now did you?

  

Overall a pretty good hike on April Fool's Day at San Elijo Lagoon. Something new everytime!

The Great Owl of Tecolote Canyon

During the San Diego Bird Festival, I had an experience that changed my life (is that cheesy enough?). I went to the Bird Festival to attend a workshop where one could learn how to bird by ear (that is to recognize bird songs). I learned a lot, like the Eurasian Collared Dove song. It is a cooing that has a quarter note-half note- quarter note kind of a beat.That was interesting, but we had heard of a Great Horned Owl mother in a nest that resides in Tecolote Canyon when we took the bus to go to the canyon to practice birding by ear. My mom and I really wanted to see the owl. So after about an hour of birding by ear, we slipped off into the night (just kidding, it was day first of all, and also, we got permission to join another group going to see the owl).

In a small grove of trees there she was sitting in her slightly disheveled nest alone, in solitude. It was Feb 26th and the owlets were probably not born yet. She was beautiful with ear tufts that you expect in a typical owl. Her eyes were judgemental as she stared into my soul.

Ever since then, my mom and I have been coming to visit the owl almost every week. The last two weeks we managed to see the owlets and man were they huge. Then again, what would you expect from a Great Horned Owl, tiny little buggers? No. They were about just as judgemental as their mothers.

March 5th

These are some of the pictures of the owl I took. They were way better than the pictures of a certain person who accompanied me whose name I shall not mention (cough cough my cough mom cough).


This was my first picture of the owl. Her owlets were just born.

March 19th

This was my second picture of the owl. Her owlets have slightly grown. However, the lighting was not the best.









The owlet is the small lump on the mother's right.

March 19th

March 26th

This was my most recent picture of the owl family. This one was my best. The owlets were more active and so was the owl. The owlets are the clearly defined gray blobs in front of dear mommy (owl mommy; my mom would probably not want wild owlets right in front of her) sometimes moving their heads.



I don't know "owl" long (for how long. Ha ha ha) it will take for the owlets to fledge but I will observe and find out. Stay tuned for more owl post! Thank you and good night! ( It might probably be day when you read this but who cares!)