Monday, June 22, 2009

Carpet of Plovers

The sun finally burst forth on Wednesday dissipating the gloom that prevailed over Southern California for about two weeks. I needed to untangle the web of sluggishness that had enveloped my being the past fortnight (and lose the pounds that seemed to have discreetly added to my weight). So I grabbed my "bazooka" and prepared myself for a staggering one mile hike (ha-ha) around Bolsa Chica in Orange County. Of course this arduous endeavor included frequent stops to photograph the teeming local avifauna.

The most common of which were Semi-palmated Plovers. I love plovers - they are such cute little birds which those big, adorable eyes - and Semi-palmateds are perhaps my all time favorites. Bolsa Chica was carpeted with these birds, some even venturing on the trails with such a sans souci attitude that I have not witnessed before.




There were other birds of course - terns were twittering and dive bombing the lagoon in great numbers and dowitchers were probing the muddy waters with their long bills in a peculiar sewing machine motion. A Great Egret caught a good sized catfish that took what seemed like an eternity to swallow.




At the end of my "trek" I was huffing and puffing and convinced that I have lost a significant amount of poundage. Which I immediately regained by feasting on a burger combo at McDonald's.




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6 comments:

Arija said...

You two had a great day out and bagged quite a few. I love the dining Egret.

My Red-Rumped Parrot sure is sitting on a TV antenna.My g-daughter stopped in for petrol on the way home from the farmers' market early in the mornig and I saw this guy lit up like a christmas tree and although I only had my 18-135mm lens I managed to get across a parking lot while he wasn't looking and took a couple of pot shots at him before he took off.

mick said...

Great photos, and lovely to see them so close. I got some distant shots of these little fellows when I was in the Pacific NW a few years ago.

Anonymous said...

The shot of the egret eating fish is tdf.

gwendolen said...

Watching birds eat makes hungry ;-)

Wai Yien said...

catching them feeding is a joy huh?

Anonymous said...

Nice - cute little plovers, plus a free extra egret.