Laguna Grande Park, Seaside, CA

Laguna Grande Park is a small park with a fresh water lake in the city of Seaside, adjacent to Monterey and very near Monterey Bay (less than a mile from the Bay). We have visited here several times through the winter and have see many of the birds you will see below. All the photos below were taken on March 7, 2011 with a Nikon D7000 camera and a Nikon 300mm lens with 1.7x teleconverter.
It was a cold and blustery day as we dodged the rain showers sweeping in off the Bay while observing in the park lake habitat.
We saw both male and female American Goldfinches feeding on the newly sprouting leaves and flowers on the shrubbery along the lake. Goldfinches are common during the winter along a narrow band of coastal shrub. The female is shown first with the brightly colored male below. More information on the American Goldfinch can be found here.

Several male American Goldfinches in their bright yellow breeding plumage were also feeding on the new flower blooms. More information from Cornell Labs here.


We saw one Red-throated Loon in the lake. This species breeds in the far north arctic region from Alaska across the most northern Canadian territories, beginning their migration in April. This one was the only one we have observed here this winter season. More information about the Red-throated Loon can be found here.

There were several Pied-billed Grebes on the lake. It is interesting that they are very common in lakes but rarely seen flying. We saw them only diving and paddling. More information can be found here.

There were also several Ruddy Ducks on the lake. They are a common winter resident in the lakes, ponds and estuaries in Monterey County. We saw both males and females diving often, resting briefly and diving again. We got these shots of both the males and females (male shown first).  The Ruddy Duck is an interesting bird, more information can be found here.

There were many Canada (Cackling) Geese on the lake and one relatively rare Greater White-fronted Goose had joined the flock. The White-fronted Goose is smaller than the far more common Canada Goose.  More information about this species can be found here.

And finally, a  unique shot of a Black-crowned Night Heron. I missed the shot of this one flying by but did manage a shot from the rear as he was on his way to another roosting location. Black-crowned Night Herons are frequently seen on-the-watch from a tree at the edge of a body of water as seen in the typical pose in this link. This photo conveys the symmetry of nature and the elegance of flight. Note the crest feather centered over the birds back - also in view on the link photo.