The Gull Show

I had not been down to my favorite place since the total eclipse, so it was definitely time! The weather looked perfect too! Temps were in the low 40's when I left the house and we supposed to reach around 70' by lunch time. Tomorrow is a different story! A cold front is supposed to come through tonight, so tomorrow's high will be in the high 20's. Crazy I know but that's Colorado weather !

So with coffee in hand, I headed down to see what was going on at my favorite place. I was surprised to see the cormorants were still around. They should be migrating south any day now!

There were quite a few ring billed gulls around which is not unusual but seeing these two sitting there looked like a cute pic to me.

We get lots of water fowl that winter around here. Such as the northern shovelers. They were so busy eating, I went for the butt shot!

The gadwalls are around all year but I do see them more in the winter time.

Hooded mergansers are so damn cute! Here is mrs. merganser...

And here's Mr. merganser. There were two males and one female on the back pond. They were enjoying some crayfish for breakfast.....

That green head of the mallard just glowed in the morning sun!

I saw a flock of small birds. Finally one posed for me! It's a dark eyed junco!

Here's a northern shoveler......

And this is a female gadwall. The blue water and the reflection caught my eye!

I saw a few of these guys and finally got a pic. This is a ring-necked duck. They summer in Canada and winter around here and further south.

I saw a few buffleheads in the middle of the main lake. Luckily this female came close enough for a pic.

Once in awhile the canvasbacks show up around here. They do breed around here and up north too. I think this guy maybe passing through as he heads south for the winter.

And then the gull show began. A group of them would fly around and then land on the water. At first I thought they were looking for food like crayfish but nope.....they were just enjoying the day!

It was time to head home when I spotted this a townsend's solitaire near the parking lot. Very cool! They do live around here year round but I do not see them that often!

Well, it was a very fun day! Thanks for reading and feel free to share with friends!