Spring! A season of contradictions – beautiful flowers, adorable baby creatures, and that constant itchiness of your nose followed by a sneeze to remind you that you haven’t quite fully outgrown your allergies.

This weekend, we visited Golden Gate Park to visit with the baby great horned owls that we had heard about through the local birding community. There is a nest that is often used out by Stow Lake that we went to see on this trip. We knew we were in the right place when we saw another birder there with a heavy duty lens, camera and tripod. We were psyched to see not just one, but TWO chicks in the nest with their momma! Since it is pretty late in the season, the babies are actually quite sizeable and barely fit in the nest. There was a lot of squishing back and forth between the three birds.

After spending some time observing (from afar!) the owlets, we went back down to the lake, where we noticed a large group of people with binoculars and cameras. That equipment, what a giveaway. It turns out there is a tree in Stow Lake that is very popular with the blue herons for nesting. We stayed to see a couple parents fly in to feed their babies. The kids had some pretty wild hairstyles compared to their parents. Adolescents are rebellious in any species, it seems!

And of course, no springtime trip to the park is complete without some ducks and ducklings. They are also very squirmy. I think they’re playing up to the tourists hoping for some food before mommy and daddy herd them back into the water for more swimming practice.

mallard duck parents

shake it off! shake it off!

fuzz huddle

We finished off the day with a graceful heron saying goodbye from Golden Gate Park, and some colorful houses out by Lake Merced.

-pl