Our Travels: Los Gatos Creek Park

Close to our home, this is a little park where a large number of birds, waterfowl especially, congregate in winter.

A Black Crowned Night Heron

A Snowy Egret

A snowy egret has a black beak while a great egret has a yellow one.

A great white Egret

A Green Heron

A Solitary Mute Swan

American Coot – Unlike ducks, their feet do not have web between “toes”. They have a funny walk and it almost appears like they are going to tip over when I watch them running to the water from land. I noticed that they can “walk” on water for a short distance as pictures in the photo above.

Pied Billed Grebe

A very common Male Mallard Duck

A Barnyard version of Mallard Duck

(A barnyard version is from cross hybridization of ducks bred in captivity)

A pair of Lesser Scaup

These are diving ducks.

Male Bufflehead

A small diving duck. Usually seen as a pair of male-female. Unlike other varieties of ducks, bufflehead remains monogamous all their life.

A Ruddy Duck

Common Mergansers

Hooded Merganser (Male)

Common Golden-eye duck

A plain old white duck

Cormorant

I am not sure why the 2nd Sunday of May is chosen as the mother’s day. But, one does find birds nurturing their little ones around this time of the year.

Happy mother’s day!!

Watched the cute babies of Canadian Goose wobble around and splash in water as they swam in shallow water protected by their parents on the either side.

And there were ducklings too ..

And many more … a couple of varieties of cormorants, black phoebes and belted king-fisher among others. Please have realistic expectation. While many of these birds can be seen on a given day, I must admit that I have taken these pictures over several months – waiting for the opportunity to have the birds close enough to my camera lens.

There are several ponds/lakes lined with grasses and “fenugreek-like” plants. The smell of leaves of these fenugreek like plants is pleasant.

A Hermit Thrush on a “fenugreek” Plant.

This is a very tiny bird – barely bigger than a thumb. I like the funny look.

Male : Black bird with red wings

A Belted Kingfisher

Dark Eyed Junco

Golden Crown Sparrow

White Crowned Sparrow

Yellow Rumped Warbler. Male. Nesting in the bushes near water. Flies away from the branch only to return exact same spot momentarily.

Excellent flying skills, change direction midair for aerial feeding. Communal birds – seen resting on a twig after a hunting session.

Humming Bird

Cedar Waxwing

Other:

The afternoon sun in Feb is good for warming up as turtles cannot regulate their body temperature. You can see them best on afternoons in February sitting on grasses, logs and rocks on the bank of the creek.