Red Tail Hawk/Photo from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red-tailed_Hawk_Buteo_jamaicensis_Full_Body...

I was at Bolsa Chica Wetlands recently with a birder friend and we saw an amazing number of water birds and also a juvenile red tail hawk! Last week a family member and I walked the same trail; it was rather windy and we saw a hawk with its wings spread out just enjoying floating on the air currents…amazing to watch! I like to imagine it was the same bird I saw before.

Great Blue Heron/Photo from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Great_Blue_Heron_Wading_2.jpg

We observed a juvenile Great Blue Heron walking towards us; it would pause, freeze, look at us out of one eye, then walk closer. The bird did this until it eventually walked right past us, only a few feet away! This is very unusual as these birds are very shy of people and they generally freeze and pose when feeling threatened, or take wing to get away. We thought maybe the young bird was a rescue bird and was use to humans so had lost most of its fear of us.

Double Crested Cormorant/Photo from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-crested_cormorant  

We saw a cormorant in just this pose, wings spread, dripping wet, perched on top of a tree, drying itself in the sun.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands/Photo from:  http://www.caopenspace.org/bolsachica.html   

"Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is a nature reserve in the city of Huntington Beach, California.  It is designated by the California Department of Fish and Game to protect a coastal wetland, with its resident threatened and endangered species. 'Bolsa Chica' means 'little bag' in Spanish, as the area was part of a historic Mexican land grant named Rancho La Bolsa Chica…As many as 321 out of Orange County's 420 bird species have been sighted at the Reserve in the past decade. Bird species at the reserve include the snowy plover, savannah sparrow, least tern, Caspian tern, great blue heron, snowy egret, double-crested cormorant, red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, and California gnatcatcher. " 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsa_Chica_Ecological_Reserve

MORE INFORMATION about the Bolsa Chica Wetlands:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsa_Chica_Ecological_Reserve

http://www.amigosdebolsachica.org/tours.htm

http://www.caopenspace.org/bolsachica.html

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