Today we were driving along Warner Ave toward PCH and Melody asked me “what is that lake over there Mommy?” So I decided we would explore the beautiful coastal estuary of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, or as Melody called it, the lake.

We walked the trail, hallooing to friendly people walking along with us. Melody made a point to say hello to a young girl and boy walking with their father. We listened to the ssshhh sound of the grasses blowing in the wind, the call of the sea gulls, the unfortunate traffic sounds from PCH replete with the unpleasant roar of motorcycles, the twitter of birds we could not name, and other sounds we could not identify.

At one point, we stopped to look at a lady bug on some grass. It crawled onto my finger, but then flew back to the grass plume it was enjoying. Melody wanted it to crawl onto her finger, but our attention bothered the lady bug and it flew away. We later looked at the many native shore birds out on the tidal mud flats, and later saw a beautiful bright red hummingbird. Finally we headed back to our car and on the way there we saw a great white heron or crane. It silently stood among the grasses, watching us watching it. We moved on.

Though our visit was short, it was a place we will be visiting again soon. With the warm spring weather, it was a perfect impromptu visit to a little bit of natures beauty right in our back yard.

PS all photos taken with my iPhone! Visit the gallery for more.