Retro post... Happy Father's Day

The weather this week has been unpredictable. One day it's sunny and the next, we have "June gloom". The gloom is caused by a thick marine layer hiding the sun. It's Father's Day and I wanted to dedicate this Morning Walk post to all of the Dads.  Here's a Father's Day posting from the past archives.

The other day, I spotted two juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons in the duck pond on the nature loop at San Elijo Lagoon. One was perched on the reeds looking to see what his sibling was up to.

This is not the normal perch for a heron. They are usually on a branch or on the reeds... lol, this one is acting more like a woodpecker. 

A close-up shot of the beautiful golden-colored eye of the juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron.

It's always a treat to see the youngsters on an outing with mom. These four duck chicks looked only a few days old. They are absolutely adorable. Mom mallard is with the chicks. Dad mallard is also around but going through a severe molting. He will be staying out of sight until his flight feathers grow out.

As the ducks swim by, I notice a familiar pair hunting for prey at the shoreline. A strange "friendship" has formed between this Snowy Egret and the Double-crested Cormorant. They have been observed hanging together for a week or so. The Snowy walks along the shoreline following the movement of the cormorant. As the cormorant dives for fish, the fish scatter away and some swim right into the beak of the waiting Egret.

As shown in this photo...The egret gets the stray fish that escape the cormorant swimming straight towards the Snowy Egret and getting snapped up in a instant.

As the Snowy clears his mouth of fish slime, the cormorant gets himself a big prize... a nice halibut. It was a little hard for him to swallow as he grips and chomps the halibut with his hooked beak. He bites down on the spine which appears to break the spine of the fish and takes the fight out of the fish in an instant. The fish goes limp, the Cormorant re-positions the halibut head first and proceeds to swallow it .

The great fishing in the area attracts other Snowy Egrets to come and investigate the activity. Hoping to get some fish, they hurry towards the cormorant.

But the resident Snowy Egret, (our cormorant's "buddy") is not about to share his fishing buddy with the other egrets. He shoos them off to go find their own cormorants to shadow.

Upset at the intruders, he hurries back to his buddy, the cormorant.

He lands and runs down the beach looking for the cormorant but it's too late. The cormorant has had his fill of fish for the morning and has gone ashore to dry his wings. He will spread his wings out to dry them while he soaks up the sun and digests his big halibut meal.

There are so many fish in the lagoon this day, even the Great Blue Heron does a flyby.

And the mullets were jumping all over the lagoon. Getting a shot of one is always a fun challenge.

 

I'm not sure but I think this is a grunion fish. Here are some facts and a chart on the grunion fish:  http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/grunionschedule.asp

Today started out a little gray but the sun soon came out. Hearing a familiar screeching sound, I searched for the source, a sound that could have been made by the loudest screech owl you can imagine with a mixture of hideous hissing. It could be heard throughout the San Elijo Reserve. Here, I find the Dad of the creature that is making all the racket!  A beautiful adult White-Tailed Kite. He sees me peeking through the reeds and gives me a stern look.

I think he is counting his talons...lol, to make sure they are all there. Raptor youngsters get pretty aggressive when they grab for the prey from their parents' talons.

 

And... ladies and gentlemen, here is the source of that screeching, hissing awful sound!!

The Dad appears quite proud of his offspring and the pair of lungs it has.

SCREEEEEEECH.............!!!!!!!!!!!  Maybe he is saying "Happy Father's Day, Dad"!!!

This exercise in food begging and whatever else the juvenile was trying to say went on for 30 minutes!

Finally the adult and the juvenile White-tailed Kites fly off to the south Rios Ave side of the lagoon and the only loud sound we hear is this "first winter" Black-headed Grosbeak.  His songs are lovely and all is peaceful at the duck pond again. When he is fully mature, his head will be completely black with no white stripe markings showing.

 Have a peaceful Father's Day Everyone.