Santee Lakes

Had a wonderful stroll along Santee Lakes in Santee, California.  These man-made lakes are fed with reclaimed water and are just teaming with bird life!

Belted Kingfisher

Crow chasing a red-shouldered hawk.

Double-crested cormorant 

Grace's Warbler, Western Form 

 Nuttall's Woodpecker

 Osprey

 Phainopepla

 Red-Shouldered Hawk

 Red-Winged Blackbird

 Ruddy Duck getting out of Dodge!

Wood Duck, likely a beneficiary of one of the many wood-duck nesting boxes that have been added to the trees in the park.

Double Crested Cormorants

Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, La Jolla, California. These fish-eating beauties are the the most pleasantly fragrant guests to have in the neighborhood but they certainly make a beautiful display against the whitened sandstone cliffs or as they skim across the water. It is, as you probably guessed, breeding season.

Cormorant

Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, Mission Bay, San Diego, California. The cormorants hang out on the buoys lining the bay by Sea World hoping to snag some free chow from the festivities. This little guy hopped into the water right next to my kayak. Oh I was wishing for my trusty Nikon...but the portable Canon in the water-proof case would have to do.

Cormorants dive for their food and propel themselves underwater with those huge flipper-like feet you see out behind. Other birds, like penguins, make much use of their flipper-like wings.

Double-Crested Cormorant

Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus. These birds typically fly low over the water, flying straight without a lot of gliding. I saw this one buzzing by low over the river mouth.

Double-Crested Cormorant

This Double-Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, was diving for fish in San Diego Harbor yesterday. Whenever I tried to take a picture it would dive down under the water and pop up a little further down the bay. I still managed to snap a few pictures, if only at a distance.