4th of July

The weather has been so ridiculously hot here in Colorado. Made it a bit tough to get out and photograph. So today, I got up at 5:30am. Took care of Molly dog and the kitties. Then headed down to my favorite photo spot in Lakewood.
There was still a faint chill in the air which felt great! As I started around the lake, I heard the avocet calling. A closer look revealed 2 young avocets...soooo cute! Look closely in the second pic and you'll see the baby avocet underneath his mom.

           

I finally pulled myself away from the avocets and continued around the lake.

I almost tripped over these two......

         I heard the familiar sound of the female wood duck. She still has all four of her young...yahoo! They were zipping around so fast, it was a challenge to get a halfway decent pic...
           

A bit further along the path was one of the snowy egrets.....

                     And then my favorite bird, the night heron was hanging out.....

               There are a gizillion swallows at these lake. I love watching them soar through the sky eating all those insects. I got this one while he was taking a break....

I looked out onto the small island and another snowy egret was perched in the tree.....

                                              Yup! more baby mallards! How cute!

   I started my second lap and got more pics of the young avocets. So fuzzy and too cute!

I was about halfway around the lake and saw the other night heron. I got a few pics of him and then realized there were friends nearby. A mallard and 3 turtles......

 One of the snowy egrets stopped by as I was photographing the night heron....

I almost finished with my second lap of the lake. I was watching a couple of the snowy egreat when something flew by......holy sh#t! It was one of the night herons!

Ha! What a great way to start the day!

                                                            Happy 4th of July!