More birds at Cardiff State Beach and beyond

Glaucous gull

I think this is a petrel

Why was there a duck at the beach?

A curlew

Today, I saw this owl underneath a bridge in Black Mountain.  I noticed the nest a few weeks ago.  I'm not sure if the owl belongs with the nest or it just was hanging out there.  It was a little bit scary.  Barn owls are strange and very lurky-looking.

These are white-tailed kites.  They show up in the summer and seem to enjoy hanging around the edge of golf courses.   I've been trying to get a good picture of them and this is about the best I can do.  They have the ability to hover, almost like a hummingbird, then they drop on any small rodents they have spotted.  When they do perch, it is only on the top of very tall trees.  They look almost like seagulls, but their method of flying is very different.  They are white birds with black tips on their wings.  Beautiful birds!

At the Living Coastal Discovery Center, I saw an osprey!  Because my photo isn't good, I've included a painting of an osprey from my bird book.  There are platforms for ospreys set up in many of the lagoons, such as the lagoon just inland from the Del Mar Fairgrounds.  I've never seen ospreys there.

I saw this extremely cute grebe at Webb Lake Park in Rancho Bernardo.  These birds are incredibly tiny.  The duck to the right immediately chased the little grebe out of the area.  I don't think the duck had ducklings - it was just being bossy.

Podilymbus podiceps with a duck

I think the bird above is a Eurasian Collared Dove.  It is lighter in color than the familiar mourning dove and more gray.  It had a distinct black line on the back of its neck.  It was also at Webb Lake Park.

In the Deep South, where my family is from, a Great Blue Heron is called an "Old Joe".  This Old Joe is sitting on the pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park, looking greedily at the koi.  

Today, August 30, 2019, we went hiking around the Preserve in Carlsbad.  There is an extinct volcano and a lake.  This is a quail sitting on a no trespassing sign.  Probably one of those literate quail.