January 10

Caroline, Riley and I are enjoying mid-morning sunshine and temperatures in the upper 50’s as we revisit Harbor Regional Park, 20 miles south of Los Angeles. Like most parks and preserves in this extremely urbanized landscape, this place is a much-needed refuge for wildlife as well as human visitors. My first sighting is a Prickly Pear Cactus displaying ripe, red fruit. The flavor of a cactus pear is sweet, but somewhat bland, like a melon. To prepare the fruit, one must burn off the “prickers” with an open flame and then peel it with a knife. Up ahead, in a small pond, I spot a wading Great Egret and a swimming male Northern Shoveler. The large, odd-looking bill of this duck is shaped like a shovel with fine projections (called lamellae) along the edges that act like a colander, filtering out tiny crustaceans, seeds, and aquatic invertebrates from the water. Nearing the shore of the park’s 45-acre lake, I gaze afar at a female Shoveler balancing on one foot and a perching Black-crowned night heron. These birds become more active at dusk, flying out to foraging sites, calling 'wok' as they pass high overhead in the darkness. Some studies suggest that they feed at night because they are dominated by other herons and egrets by day. Following a paved path around the lake, I notice the red fruit of both a Toyon bush and a California Pepper tree. Along the way, I come upon Coyote brush seeding out. Early Californians, because of its abundant silky-haired seeds, called this shrub “fuzzy-wuzzy”. Once again, I look far out on the lake to observe a pair of perching Double-crested Cormorants and California Gulls. The California Gull is a medium-sized gull, a bit larger than a Ring-billed Gull and smaller than a Herring Gull.  Near shore, I look at and listen to a noisy Coot swimming past me. Turning around, I pass by a Fan Palm tree and a patch of colorful Coast Sunflowers. Nearing the car, I glance up and can barely make out the markings of a perching Song Sparrow before coming upon a tree where a few Great-tailed grackles are even noisier than a nearby gaggle of geese. In the evening, raucous flocks of these grackles can pack neighborhood trees, filling the sky with their amazing (some might say ear-splitting) voices. Great-tailed and Boat-tailed grackles have at times been considered the same species. However, current thinking is that they are closely related, but different species.

 

Surface of blue

Wildlife show

Surface of white

Covered by snow

Placid and clear

Ducks dive deep

Shrouded by ice

Muskrats sleep

Waters of earth

Nature’s flair

Lakes of winter

Here and there

 

D. DeGraaf