Part of our Beach Creatures series — helping West LA parents ID the wild stuff right in our backyard, from Venice to MDR to Playa.

If you've ever walked the Venice canals, Ballona Lagoon, or along Ballona Creek, you've definitely seen them: skinny-legged white birds creeping through the shallows, big gray statues standing dead-still, and those dark, almost reptilian birds diving and popping up with a fish. Our little waterways are basically a free safari, and the kids LOVE spotting them.

Here's your cheat sheet to the three main characters you'll see hunting out there. (Ballona Lagoon alone is home to snowy egrets, great blue herons, and cormorants — all year round.

That dark, almost prehistoric-looking bird swimming low in the water — then suddenly disappearing under the surface — is a cormorant (you were close on the spelling). Most likely a Double-crested Cormorant, super common along our coast and waterways (Wikipedia – Double-crested Cormorant).

Unlike most water birds, cormorants are built to dive. They swim along the surface, then plunge underwater and chase fish down — basically the scuba divers of the canal (Wikipedia).

Watch for the funniest part: after fishing, you'll catch one standing on a piling or rock with its wings spread wide open, just… holding the pose. They're not showing off — their feathers aren't fully waterproof, so they have to air-dry their wings after a swim. Great photo op, and kids think it looks like a tiny Batman.

See a big, tall, gray-blue bird standing perfectly still at the water's edge like it's frozen? That's a Great Blue Heron — the largest heron in North America. They're patient ambush hunters: they stand motionless forever, then strike like lightning when a fish swims by.

You might also see an all-white version of basically the same body shape — that's a Great Egret. Quick tell: the Great Egret has a yellow bill and black feet. Both are calm, slow, and dramatic to watch.

THIS is the white bird you're picturing — the one that shuffles and shakes its feet in the water while hunting. That's a Snowy Egret, and it's everyone's favorite to watch because it's so animated.

The dead giveaway: a Snowy Egret is all white with a black bill, black legs, and bright YELLOW feet — birders call them "golden slippers".

And those yellow feet aren't just cute — they're a hunting tool. The egret wiggles and shuffles them in the shallow water to stir up the mud and scare little fish and shrimp out of hiding, then snatches them up. It's called "foot stirring". Some even drag their bright feet through the water mid-flight to spook fish to the surface. Basically a little fishing dance in golden slippers. Kids are obsessed.

Fair question. Despite the name, most of the geese you see here never migrate from Canada at all. They're "resident" geese that live in so cal year round. Turns out our parks, golf courses, and grassy canal banks are basically goose heaven: endless lawn to munch (they're one of the few birds that can digest grass), water that never freezes, and almost no predators. After being nearly wiped out a century ago, they were reintroduced across the U.S. mid-century and have been booming ever since. And since geese nest where they were born, once they move in… they stay.

Bring a snack, take it slow, and let the kids be the spotters. A cheap pair of binoculars turns a regular walk into a whole adventure.