Saturday, January 19, 2013

Friday Adventures

I absolutely love Colorado weather( most of the time). Last weekend the high temp was about 15'. Yup that was a bit chilly! By today the high ended up around 60'. It does make dealing with the cold easier as you know it will not last long.
 So I headed out to see who wanted their photo taken. The skies were a nice shade of blue, so I headed back over to the south Platte. Last week was fun but the light was terrible. So I wondered what fun pics I could get with some nice sunny skies.

  There's was lots of activity as all the ducks were enjoying the gorgeous day. This handsome male pintail happily posed for me.









I spotted this male redhead duck.........



   This is a female pintail......



    The ducks were flying all around. I finally got this shot of a green winged teal....



      A kingfisher was flying around but I was not paying much attention to him. I was watching the pintails when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. The kingfisher was hovering above the stream looking for breakfast! I was hoping to get a shot of him catching a fish but he flew off without catching anything....





   

     I never get tired of these handsome green winged teals........



        Again, I saw some movement. A small bird was flying by. Luckily I'm getting better at shooting first and figuring out who's pic I got later......It wasn't the best pic so I watched to see if he/she would land nearby. Luckily the bird landed in a nearby tree. At first I thought it was a kestrel but he was too big. A kestrel is about the size of a robin and this guy was about the size of a pigeon. when I got home, I did some research and figured out he was a merlin hawk! Sweet!






The merlin flew off and then some pintails flew by......




     This is a magpie. They are quite common and see them all the time. This guy happened to be a good spot so I took his pic.



   Just as I as getting back to the car, a kestrel was sitting in a small tree......


 It was such a nice day, so I decided to drive over to my favorite spot in Lakewood. It was very quiet, so I stopped by Prospect park on my way home.
I was hoping to see the wood ducks but they were not around. I did see the pied-billed grebe.
I've seen her before but never in a good spot for a pic. so was happy to get this one.



           There were two female goldeneyes figuring out who's territory it was. Seems this gal was the winner........


     While the gals duked it out, this male lesse scaup was napping.....

   

    This is park is where the mandarin duck lives, so I headed over to the east end of the park to say hi. He was in his usual spot with the mallards. Another photographer was taking pics with a gigantic lens. That lens has to be around 2 1/2 ft long and cost around 10,000$. Really not necessary to get a pic of the mandarin as he is usually within 10-20 ft. Some people refer to that lens as the "rich white man's lens"..........I have only seen that lens with older white guys, so the name seems to be true....



    The mandarin was hanging with his girfriend....so cute!


                         Well, it was a very fun day! I hope you enjoy the pics!

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