Spring in Balboa Park

Here in the San Fernando Valley we have our own Balboa Park. Not as impressive as the one in San Diego. But it has a lot going for it. A manmade lake, with water from the nearby water reclamation plant. A golf course, a bird sanctuary and walking trails.

I went to see the Cherry blossoms. Unfortunately the Cherry trees are dying. These are just decorative ones, donated from Japan about 20 years ago. Clearly the climate just doesn’t suit them, so there are only a few remaining.

But the nearby bird sanctuary attracts all kinds of birds half a mile west to the man made Lake Balboa. Sorry, I’m too lazy to do my homework and look up what kind of birds these are. Is one an egret? Or maybe a heron?

That is one long neck and beak!

I thought this might be some kind of bird of prey, but now I’m wondering if it is just a duck that flew up to the top of a tree?

I’m going to say these are pelicans. One of them opened that gullet and the bottom portion was huge!! Clearly someone is keeping track of thee guys. Well at least the one on the left.

Three little pelicans standing on the beach, one flew off and then there were two… Sorry I have all kinds of children rhymes in my head right now.

Taking flight!

Coming in for a landing.

Down! Look at the water displacement, that is one big bird. Must have a lot of buoyancy, that size you’d expect him to sink down much further.

Duck, duck, goose!

I understand why Canada geese like to come here. I’m happy to say that these days they do limit their numbers, cuz they are loud, noisy and leave a lot of poop!

Springtime is allergy time. The local pins are producing their fruit.

Soon the yellow pollen will be everywhere, along with the sneezing.

Leah

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: