My owl friends: A Fun Day at Barr Lake

Finally! I had a free day to go photographing! The weather was a bit iffy. There were some snow showers, it was only 25' and there were lots of dark clouds. Not conducive for good photos but it was worth a shot. I decided to go out east to Barr Lake State park. This is a very good place to see bald eagles, so off I went.

The clouds seem to part as I got to Barr lake...sweet! I quickly parked the car, grabbed the camera and I was on my way.......

I usually see a small herd of mule deer and sure enough, there were a few relaxing. I said hi as I took a few pics. They were very relaxed and posed for me. These are smart deer. They hang out in the wildlife refuge part of the park where no hunting is allowed!

I continued down the trail and saw a northern flicker....

There were thousands of geese. Mixed in were mallards and pintails. Here is pair of pintails coming in for a landing.....

Here is a pair of mallards......

And here is a male pintail flying by....

Yeah! A couple of immature eagles were hanging out.....

One took flight! Wow, how beautiful.........

I continued down the trail. All of a sudden a bird flew up out of the tall grasses. I thought it was a red-tailed hawk but quickly realized it was a northern harrier. These are the coolest hawks. Smaller than red tails and they look a bit like owls. This guy circled around looking for some breakfast and gave me some great pics!

I was still admiring the harrier as he flew away when a few birds flew by and into a
nearby tree. Sweet! it was a meadowlark!

I continued on and saw more bald eagles!

Oh yeah! I was having so much fun! The bald eagles were putting on quite the show for me.
I headed back on a different trail. As I came around a large stand of trees, I saw something running on the far shore. Cool! It was a young coyote. I think he was stalking the ducks and I startled him. Bummer for him but the ducks were happy......