My owl friends: Happy New Year!

I love to go out photographing on New Year's Day. I feel like it's a great way to start the new year and also to set the tone for a great year ahead.

So I decided to head out to Barr Lake and also check out the DIA loop which is nearby. It was 5' when I left Boulder. When I got to Barr lake, it was -1'. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr! The sun was just coming up, so I decided to drive the DIA loop first before going into Barr Lake.

I quickly spotted this prairie falcon! My second one in a week. I got some nice pics of one when Hazel and I were out hiking the other day!

This is a red tailed hawk. I liked the silhouette of him perched there.

As I was driving along, a flock of some kind of bird flew in front of me. I quickly realized they were horned larks! Cool! I have only seen them once so this was a thrill!

They are called horned larks because of the tuff of feathers that look like horns. There were huge flocks of them all over the place but it was quite challenging to get any decent pics. Aaah, I love a good challenge!

After checking out the loop, I headed into Barr Lake state park. Winter time is the best time to see eagles around here, so I was hopeful! As I drove in, I could see a few eagles near the barn owl nest box. So I quickly grabbed my daypack and camera and hustled over there.
There was a bit of snow that I had to hike through but it was worth it. This young eagle posed nicely for me!

After enjoying the eagle, I headed back towards the parking lot and I spotted this junco......

And this kestrel showed up too.....

It was still around 5' and just too cold to walk out to the gazebo. So I checked out the bird feeder behind the Nature center. I do not know who this is, but he/she is darn cute! Best guess is either a finch or a sparrow as there were plenty of them around.

So I left the park and drove back over to the DIA loop. A northern harrier was flying in front of me looking for breakfast. So I was able to speed ahead of him, pull the car over and jump out to get these pics!
These are such cool birds! They look like a hawk and owl combo.....

And there were more horned larks too......

Then I spotted an immature eagle enjoying some breakfast....

And a red tail hawk was enjoying the morning sun....

It was time to head home and get Hazel dog some playtime. We headed over to the north end of the rez for some tennis ball chasing fun! By now it was 30' so it felt like summer.
On the way home, we stopped to check on the coot lake owls. A few weeks ago I had seen one owl there but the other times I had not seen anyone.
Today I got lucky! There were a pair! This guy was checking me out....