A Quiet Day

I had thought the hot days were all done but that was not the case. It has been in the low 90's and I am ready for temps to be in the 60's! 

So since it looked like it was gonna heat up today, I headed down to Prospect park and then my favorite spot to check on everyone. There's lots of shade to stay away from that hot Colorado sun!

I was barely out of the car when I spotted about 6 snowy egrets. I have not seen them much this summer, so it was a bit of a nice surprise to see them. This guy posed nicely as his buddies flew around the lake.

As I was photographing the snowy, I spotted movement to my right.  I took a few quick pics and then he dove under the water. Hmmmmm at first I thought it was a muskrat as they are quite common around here. But now I think it maybe a beaver. There was an active beaver dam in the creek but it got washed away during the floods last fall. So it is possible it was a beaver......cool!

 I headed out to Tabor lake to see what was going on. I did spot the young wood ducks but they were too far out for pics. Other than that, all I saw was geese and the cormorants.

I continued on and spotted this chickadee being quite the acrobat!

I could hear the hummingbirds zipping around and then this is landed for a quick pic.

I also saw a couple of young cooper's hawks but they were not ready to have their pic taken...

Not much else was going on, so I drove down to my favorite spot. I took a quick look for my cooper's hawk friends but they were not around. So I went to check on the GBH nests.
This is nest #2. Looking good!

And this is nest #3. Even though this nest got started late, these youngsters look the same size as nest #2. Looks like a successful year for the GBH.

I went looking for the wood duck family and they were easy to find. I did not see mom but did see all 5 of the youngsters.I think this one is a male.....

And here's a pic of the male and his sister.

I continued around the main lake but it was very quiet. The avocets have left for the season, all the ducklings have grown up and the cooper's hawks have increased their territory which makes it harder to find them. Oh well, it was still a nice morning to be out in Nature.

I headed home and stopped by the open space offices. Not much was going on but I did spot a young red tailed hawk. Always fun to see these beautiful birds!

Thanks for reading!