My owl friends: The Osprey Show!

I had not been over to the owl nest since Tuesday evening, so I decided today was a good day to go say hi! I was over to the nest by 6:15 am and all was quiet. I quickly spotted Sonny sitting in one of his favorite spots. But did not see momma Cher.

Then I crossed the green pipe to see if I could see the two owlets that are out of the nest.
I spotted one of them but could not see the other one. With the leaves coming out, it makes it tougher to see these guys.

As I was enjoying watching the owlet, I heard Sonny hooting so I crossed back over the pipe to see what was going on. Sweet! Cher had flown in and they were having a chat! It has been a few years since I have gotten a pic of them sitting so close to each other! Sweet!
Cher is on the left and Sonny is on the right. You can really see how different they look when they are side by side.

After a few minutes Cher flew off and Sonny settled in for a nap. The sun was just starting to shine on him.....

All was well at the owl nest, so I decided to go over to Saw Mill ponds. It's only about a 5 minute drive from the owl nest.
I had just turned onto the dirt roadway into the ponds and spotted this guy. It's an immature swainson's hawk!

I had barely parked the car when I spotted an osprey flying in with some nesting material. Seems a young pair of osprey are thinking about nesting. Unfortunately the top of these power poles doesn't look like the best place to make a nest.....

The pair flew off to some trees not far away. At first I started walking towards the other osprey nest but there was no guarantee I would get some good pics. So I quickly did an about face and headed for these two. It was a narrow and slippery trail but I quickly hiked over to get these pics.

They flew off, so I headed back to the parking area. As I headed back I spotted this snake just hanging out! I stopped dead in my tracks to make sure it wasn't a rattle snake. I quickly realized it was a garter snake but it did take me a moment to get up the courage to walk by as I was only inches away from the tree trunk. Of course then I realized I had walked right by the snake 5 minutes ago when I was watching the osprey :)
I'm guessing this snake is close to 3 feet long!

After getting snake pics I spotted the osprey across the pond, so headed over there. Just as I got close a red wing black bird started harassing the osprey.....

Making osprey babies.......

After mating, they started bringing sticks to another tower. It was so fun to watch them searching for a place to nest. Guess I will have to check back soon to see how they are doing......

It was hard but I finally pulled myself away to drive over to Walden ponds to see what was going on over there. Seems the Boulder Birding club was there as parking was a bit of challenge. But I found a spot and headed out....

I quickly spotted a GBH doing some fishing......

And then I spotted 3 white faced ibis! Sweet! I had seen postings so I knew they were around.....lucky me! There were not in the best place for a good pic but I was happy I got something!

I started walking west toward all the ponds but it seemed pretty quiet, so I turned around and decided to go over to 75th st. On the way back this cute song sparrow was singing up a storm!

And there was one lone pelican on the main pond....

At 75th St I went to see if the dipper was around but no luck. There is a pair of red tailed hawks that nest there. One of the red tails was flying by and got harassed by a kestrel! I love how the kestrel looks like a mini red tail hawk!

I was about ready to head home but decided to go back and check on my owl friends.
Owlet #2 was snoozing......

And Clarence the owlet was up higher and also snoozing. Only one other photographer was there. He was quite friendly and started telling me all about the owlets. When they came out of the nest, etc, etc ,etc. I just smiled and nodded. He was correct on some things and wrong on others but there was no need to let him know that. Obviously he had no idea that the owls and I are are very good friends!