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Even though the Buena Vista Lagoon is only 5-10 minutes from our house, I'd never been there with my camera before last Saturday. I suppose that's because it's mostly overgrown with cattails and I didn't expect to find anything there to shoot. I was surprised, though, to find quite a bit, even though it was foggy and the wrong time of day. I had decided to go there, mostly as a scouting trip, but took my camera, 24-105mm, 400mm prime, and tripod, just in case I saw something.

I could hear the Red-winged Blackbirds long before I saw any of them, due to the thick cover. When I finally did see a few, I wasn't ready and by the time I had set up they were gone. I took a few shots of them, even though I didn't expect them to come out, and I was surprised that I got anything postable.

Tags:   Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Fog Cattails Oceanside Carlsbad California NaturesFinest AvianExcellence

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Drakes and turtles really aren't very good at this game. If you View On Black, you can see that the drake has the wrong side and the wrong body part and appears to be looking at the turtle for a clue as to what he's supposed to be doing, but the turtle is totally clueless.

While I was shooting this series, I was entertained by the mallards drinking and bathing, and was amused that they go out of the water to do this. You'd think that they could do it while they're swimming. But, I was so excited when I saw that I had captured the turtle, too, which I didn't even see until I opened the shots on my computer. It still cracks me up to see how much space the turtle occupies, versus the mallards. In one of the frames, the turtle is directly facing the drake, as if to say, "Don't come any closer!"

Jeannie and Courtney, I almost made the title, "Salmon says...", but nobody else would get that. This was a reference to an inside joke about how I've been unintentionally (I promise) posting the same subject as two of my contacts. And, Jeannie, those are cattails, not reeds. ;-)

Tags:   Mallards Box turtle Buena Vista Lagoon Oceanside Carlsbad California vosplusbellesphotos FRIENDS GoldStarAward SuperShot

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My favorite songbird.

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Tags:   Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos Buena Vista Lagoon Oceanside Carlsbad California AvianExcellence BRAVO NaturesFinest VosPlusBellesPhotos

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Tags:   American Coot Fulica americana Buena Vista Lagoon Oceanside Carlsbad California

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Explore #260, 10/26/09.

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If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck... it still might not be a duck. In my research, I learned that Coots are not ducks, but rather swimming rails. Who knew?

The house that I grew up in is only a couple of blocks from the Buena Vista Lagoon, as it is now known. We just called it "the slough" and it used to smell pretty badly (the sewage treatment plant near the other end of it might have had a little to due with that, but we were too young to make the connection), leading us to tease each other about "smelling like a slough". There were lots of "mud hens" in the slough, which is probably why I grew up with a prejudice against them, but it was probably also due to their plainness and my associating them with the smell from the lagoon. I'm beginning to rethink that, though, now that I've seen them up close. There were also lots of Killdeer in the 9-acre field, next to our house, that my grandfather owned, but I've always liked them, because they were one of the first birds that I learned the name of and because I associate them with playing in that field.

Tags:   Fall colors American Coot Fulica americana Buena Vista Lagoon Oceanside Carlsbad California ImpressedBeauty

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