A Beautiful Autumn Day

Choices, choices,choices.....after much deliberation I decided to go to Barr Lake. The main reason was I just saw a post about the barn owls. And I was right all along. There were a couple of owlets in the nesting box. The post also said they were ready to fledge( leave the nest). Oh! To see a baby barn owl would be such a treat!

So got my butt out the door by 6am. Sunrise was not until 7:15am and it takes almost an hour to drive out there. Excellent! Maybe there would be a fantastic sunrise to photograph.

I made it out in good time and the sunrise was pretty good. DIA( Denver International Airport) is not far from Barr lake, so it's pretty common to see the planes go by......

I hustled over to the barn owl nesting area. Maybe?????

Damn! No sign of any of the barn owls. Oh well. They will be around all winter and maybe next spring I will get to see some baby barn owls.

I headed over to the refuge area. On the way I saw this kestrel perched in the tree. The light was still low, so I settled for a silhouette of him.

As the sun rose, the trees were glowing!

The plan was to walk out to the gazebo which is about 1.5 miles one way. It's a beautiful and easy walk. But I wasn't far into the walk when I noticed how quiet it was. It seemed like I would do lots of walking but not see much. So I thought for a second and decided to drive over to the Rocky Mt. Arsenal Refuge. I hadn't been there for awhile and it was close by.

So I head back to the parking area and I spot a red tail hanging around. I spent some time following him and grabbing a few pics......

After enjoying the hawk, I drove over to the the Arsenal. This is where there is a herd of wild bison. They have quite a bit of acreage, so there is no guarantee you will see them. I got lucky today and saw quite a few!

I love this sign. I guess there are some people that would get out of their car( not smart) but I do not need a sign to remind me how big and powerful these guys are!

Bison have the right of way.....

After enjoying the bison, I drove over and walked around Lake Mary. Very ,very quiet!  Bummer!

The clouds in the sky looked very cool....

Even though it was almost 10:30 am, the cloud cover helped keep the light from getting too harsh. So I decided to drive over to my favorite spot. Of course just as I got there the clouds parted and the light started to get a bit harsh.....dang!

Again it was fairly quiet but I did see this handsome gadwall.....

And a very beautiful female widgeon....

Yup! It was a beautiful day!

Finally it was time to head home as it was "Hazel Time" We headed out to the Boulder rez for some swimming/ball chasing. We met two young aussie pups that loved chasing Hazel. Guess they were practicing their herding skills. Of course Hazel was way too fast for them which made her very happy!

Thanks for reading!