Birds in Nature; Birdwatching Pictures & Sounds

Wednesday (Feb 7) was the first day of the San Diego Bird Festival. Our first trip was to the Santee and Lindo lakes. We stopped at Lindo lake first.

There, at Lindo lake was the prettiest duck I have ever seen. It was the Mandarin Duck. The docent thought it had probably escaped from a private collection (a pet), since it is ordinarily found in China. It was was blue, green, white, purple, and red.

It was a sighting first for me. I was shocked. It was a one and only bird for me. The other bird watchers thought of it as a secondary "life bird" (therefore not so interesting). I found it a wonderful subject for my photography.

As we continued on the trip, the next thing I saw was a Black Crowned Night Heron. As we walked past him, I noticed, when he moved into the reeds, that he had a made a little home there. He built it so well that it covered him completely. Then we moved into the trees around the lake and many of the other bird watchers saw their "life bird" (a bird that made their trip) --the Vermilion Flycatcher. He was unfortunately too far away to get a picture of him.

Then we headed to the Santee Lakes. When we first arrived we saw the Reddish Egret, the Cattle Egret, and some American Coots. As we moved forward we saw the Ring Necked Duck. We also saw a Great Egret on the other shore and so I hoped we would soon see it again. As we moved around the lake and finished the trip we saw an Osprey in a tree in the distance. He was too far away for my camera to capture, but close enough for the binoculars. We noticed that he was clutching a fish in his claws. This was my life bird for this part of the trip.