Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Wild Bird Wednesday - Laguna Niguel Park Birds

I have a wonderful regional park near my house that is an excellent spot for birds.  It has a nice creek running through it and a lake big enough for small boats and fishing as well.  Meet some of the local residents:




Male Mallard Duck with his pretty green head feathers.




Female Mallard Duck.




I have not been able to get a confirmed identification on these two girls.  The black beaks mean they are NOT female Mallards.  Consensus seems to be they are Teals - possibly Blue-winged Teals, but I am not 100% confident.




Male Ruddy Duck - it's hard to see, but his beak is a bright blue color in this photo.  Can you imagine if YOUR nose turned blue when you were "in season?"




Female Ruddy Duck




Here she is with her babies.




Soooo cute - I love the single water droplet balanced on this little baby's head!




And one more shot just because baby ducks are so irresistable!








A Snowy Egret showing off his yellow feet.




One of our local raptors making a fly-by...








This was my lifer for the day...




...a female Nuttall's Woodpecker!




She was nice enough to let me get quite a few photos...




,,,and even showed off her bug-catching skills!




Yum!

KJ



5 comments:

Kenneth Cole Schneider said...

I especially liked that male Ruddy Duck portrait, but all are beautiful!

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Lovely series of bird images.Love the flight shots

Stewart M said...

Ducks and woodpeckers - that's pretty much a perfect post. I often wonder how far people would go to see Mallard if they were not common - the makes are cracking looking birds.

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

Les Fous du Cap said...

Funny baby ducks ;-)
Céline & Philippe

Rohrerbot said...

Nice shot of the NUWO!!!!! I've only seen that bird once. As for the teals, I think you are correct. The only other birds they could be are Mallard mutts. But they look good for teal. Congrats on the lifer!