I have a beginner’s camera and I haven’t been happy with the quality of my pictures. But instead of brooding about them I decided to post a few of them anyway. I came across a family of whistling ducks (my best guess) today at a local park, 2 adults and 5 babies. They seem to sound more like geese then ducks to me. They have red beaks and legs with a brown eye ring and a brown ring around their necks. The colors don’t come out very good in the pictures. Perhaps I am taking them at the wrong time of day, straight up noon. Everything is washed out looking. I also took a picture of some of the most common birds at the park, some mallards and coots. Since I noticed that some of the other weblogs are very distant from here I thought I might share some of the common birds with everyone. I don’t know what might be common here that isn’t common somewhere else. Let me know if you know what kind of bird the family of ducks actually is.

I live in the Orange County area of Southern California. I don’t consider myself to be anything more than a novice birder, but I do enjoy watching birds. I live near the beach, which gives me an opportunity to observe birds. But I have found a park near my work that attracts quite a number to bird varieties, some of which I have yet to identify. There are innumerable noisy crows and the resident aggressive geese and sea gulls that are attracted by the people who insist on feeding them day old bread. There are many mallards and coots as well. But it really gets interesting when visiting birds stop in. There are times when there are over 50 cormorants swimming in the lake and perching in the trees with their wings outspread. There have been some white pelicans stopping in recently as well. I have been noticing quite a few American widgeons recently and a few shy pied billed grebes. I love to hear their call, such a haunting sound from such a small, easily overlooked bird. Well, I hope to post some pictures sometime soon and maybe I will be able to get some of the unknowns identified.