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!