Rambling Around Stow Lake II - More Waterfowl and Turtles

As mentioned in my prior post, I went on a birding walk around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park on May 10, 2008 followed by an early morning walk on May 15, 2008. In addition to the fabulous great blue herons, I saw a number of other waterfowl.

First, I observed the lovely but common male and female domestic mallard (anas platyrhynchos)

Male domestic mallard (anas platyrhynchos).

Second, I saw a bizarre large duck-like creature that I had never seen before. In reviewing bird books, I learned that it was a domestic muscovy (cairina moshata) which interbreeds in city parks and produces birds with a wide variety of sizes, plumages and colors. This particular bird aggressively shooed away the domestic mallards.

Domestic muscovy (cairina moschata).

Third, I spotted the pied-billed grebe (podilymbus podiceps) on Stow Lake. These birds are usually solitary. The adults have a distinctive black bill ring.

Juvenile pied-billed grebe (podilymbus podiceps).

Adult pied-billed grebe (podilymbus podiceps).

Finally, I spotted four Canadian geese (branta canadensis) and nine chicks. The naturalist from the San Francisco Nature Education speculated that two pairs of Canadian geese and their young merged into one larger group. I also spotted many turtles posing in the sun on logs in Stow Lake. The turtles were so immobile that at first I wondered if they were statues. Here are some of the turtles on a log with one turtle barely visible at the end of the log struggling to climb up from the lake.

Turtles.

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