Busy, Busy, Busy!

I love photographing anytime of the year but springtime has to be the best! There is so much going on! Too bad I can't clone myself so I could be in more than one place at the same time.

 My dilemma is "where to go photographing today"! There are so many great spots to go within an hour's drive from Boulder.

I got everything done on my list on Monday, so I headed over to see my owl friends in the evening. There were a couple of photographers besides myself but the normal papparazzi guys were not there, so I was a happy gal.

I am guessing this is the first owlet hatched. Normally there are a few days between hatchings, so they are different sizes early on. He/she is looking good!

Notice the rabbit feet sticking out below the owlet.......

There's two of them....

And then the third one made an appearance.....

Momma Cher was close by supervising and Sonny was across the path doing his job...
I may have some new readers, so I may need to explain that I named the owls Sonny and Cher. I did that because it makes it easier to talk about them then constantly saying the male owl, the female owl,etc. And I named them that because they are rock stars like the singing group of Sonny and Cher. And Cher was taller than Sonny. In the owl,hawk,eagle world...the females are larger than the males........so there you have it!

Yes those are more rabbit feet...

As it was getting dark, Cher flew to the east lake. She and Sonny hooted back and forth before heading out to get dinner. A great way to spend the evening!

I wanted to go check out what was going on at my "favorite place" and I did not want to wait until Sunday. So I went down this morning. It's not fun to drive down there on a weekday as I have to deal with commuter traffic but it had to be done.

I had checked the weather and it looked great but as I got in the car, all I saw was a sky full of clouds! Bummer.....hopefully they would dissappear by the time I got done to Lakewood.

Well, it was still very cloudy when I got down there but I started my loop with hopes to see some goodies!

Bingo! The avocets are back! Nothing cuter than baby avocets.......so stay tuned!

I continued on and spotted a pair of blue winged teals......

The buffleheads are still around. They will be heading north soon.....

Mr. mallard was napping.....

As I was walking around the main pond, I stopped to say hi to a very nice older man that I have met there before. An excellent birder, he has taught me a few tidbits about birds. He was the one who told me about the cooper's hawk nest last summer. I asked him about the hawks and he shared they had moved to a new nest about 100 yards from the old nest. Ahh, that's why I had not seen much of them. So after a bit of chatting, I headed over to check it out and there they were! The light was still terrible, so I just grabbed a few pics and moved on. Now that I know where the new nest is, I will be excited to meet the new baby cooper's hawks this summer.

I headed back to see how the heron rookery was doing!

There were 3 nests from last summer and up until last time I was here a few weeks ago. Now there is a 4th! That was fast! The 4th one is in the lower right of this pic.....

Love when I get a decent flight shot!

Nest building is in full swing.......

The cormorants are in full swing too. They share the tree with the herons....

The cormorants need a running start to take flight.....

As I was watching the herons, a grackle flew in to say hi.......

And the bushes are starting to flower!

Well after spending 3 hours there hoping for the light to get better, it was time to head home.
Just then one of the herons flew into a nearby willow tree for nesting material....

Well, all in all it was a very fun morning! Thanks for reading!