My owl friends: Eagles, Eagles and more Eagles!

Well, since today is 12/12/12 I just had to go out photographing. Last year I went out photographing on 11/11/11 and got some amazing pics. So I was hopeful that today
would be very magical!
I decided to go over to Barr Lake State Park. I have seen bald eagles over there, so was hoping to get some pics of them.

I was the first car in the parking lot....sweet! I had the whole place to myself. I quickly grabbed my camera and daypack and headed off to see if the eagles were around. I got over to the boardwalk and scanned the lake. The water was still very low, so the edge of the lake was about 1/2 mile out. A quick look through my camera lens revealed a couple of immature eagles sitting on the ice. So I hustled out there.....as I walking out there, I looked to the right and saw a few eagles in the cottonwood tree. Sweet! They are all over the place! Today was gonna be Epic!
The young ones on the ice took flight, so I headed over to the cottonwood tree and got these pics of some immature eagles!

As I was photographing the eagles, another bird flew by. I got a few decent pics and soon realized it it was a harrier. They are in the hawk family but look like a combination of a hawk and an owl. Very cool!

I continued on watching the eagles fly around. There were some mature eagles but the young ones gave me the best shots of the day! So magnificant!

Besides the beautiful eagles, the mountains were spectacular too! Thankfully we are finally getting some much needed snow in the mountains!

I was there around 3 hours but it felt like 5 minutes. So much fun! Next stop was my favorite spot in Lakewood. It was pretty darn quiet, so I headed over to see if mandarin boy was around.
As I drove in the park, a big lake is on the left. I saw a photographer taking pics and realized the mandarin was hanging in the lake today. I have some really good pics of him but I couldn't resist getting a few more! He is so beautiful and he knows it!