Springtime in the rockies is an interesting time. I've lived out here for almost 20 years and it still amazes me. It can be 60' one day and the next day we get 2 feet of snow. Luckily when I photographing yesterday, it was gonna be a 60' day.
I was out of house by 6am as it felt important to be at "my favorite spot" by sun rise. I wasn't sure why I needed to be there so early until I got there. The sun was rising and the moon was setting.....very cool!
After enjoying the moon, I hiked around to see what was going on. I was on the look out for the spring time arrivals such as the wood ducks, avocets, black crown night herons and the snowy egrets.
I checked out the spot where the avocets like to hang out but they were not there. I have seen postings that avocets have been seen in Colorado, so they should be back here very soon.
What I did notice was 6-8 great blue herons flying around. Hmmmmm the most GBH I've ever seen here is 2, so it was quite exciting. Maybe they'll start building a rookery to nest here!
The sparrows and the red wing blackbirds were in full song! Definitely felt like
spring as I enjoyed their songs.
I headed to the back pond to see who was there. At first it looked very quiet but I saw a few ducks on the far side. Ha! The wood ducks were back! I was so excited! I never get tired of seeing these beautiful ducks! There were a pair and 2 single male ducks. I probably took over 200 pics just of the wood ducks.....here are few of my best shots.
I finally pulled myself away from the wood ducks and continued on. No other spring arrivals were there. Just the usual shovelers, mallards and geese. So I drove up to Prospect Park where the mandarin duck lives.
He was in his usual spot hanging out with mallard girlfriend.
While it's always fun to see the mandarin, I was hoping to find the great horned owl. A few weeks ago I had met a nice couple who were out photographing. They had told me about a GHO they had seen. I had looked two separate times with no luck. So maybe the third time would be the charm. I walked down to the area they had been spotted and starting searching in all the trees. A blue jay started squawking in a big cotonwood tree. Hmmmmm it took a minute for me to realize he was helping me locate the GHO. Sure enough, I looked below the blue jay and there was the male GHO. Sweet! He opened his eyes and looked at me. I introduced myself, he approved and posed for me. Some GHO are pretty shy but this guy was quite comfortable with my presence. Much like my owl friends in Boulder. I'm not sure where the nest is but I hope to find it and get some owlet shots soon..........
I was pretty pleased I found the owl with the blue jay's help. So I headed back to my usual trails to see what was going on. As I crossed the parking lot, an older man and his 6 yr old grand daughter said hi. He asked if I had seen the wood ducks. Wood ducks????? I replied no but I'd love to. So they walked with me to show me where they had seen them. Bummer, no ducks were seen but I thanked them and made a mental note to check that area again.
Again, I headed back to my favorite trails and a cute downy woodpecker posed for me.
I was almost back to where the mandarin hangs out and there was the male wood duck!
I couldn't believe my luck! I wondered where the female was and soon found her sitting in a small tree nearby. Wood ducks only nest in tree cavities or nesting boxes built for them. And they have toenails on their webbed feet to hold onto tree limbs. Crazy ,huh?
So after enjoying these guys, I finally headed out to my usual trails. A cute green winged teal was enjoying the beautiful day! He looks like a decoy doesn't he?
I walked by the cormorant tree which was quite active. Among all the cormorant nests there was one great blue heron nest. It was so fun to watch them flying back and forth with nesting material.
Above me, a red tailed hawk was looking for lunch........
I headed to the beaver dam but it was pretty quiet. A few coots and mallards were
swimming around but not much else.
I had just noticed a nest up in the tree when a hawk flew into it. Cool! I wasn't sure
what kind of hawk it was, so looked it up when I got home and it seems to be a coopers hawk! They are smaller than a red tailed hawk. So now this nest is on my
radar. Once the leaves come out, it will be tough to see the nest but for now I have a
pretty decent view.
Now that was a very fun day! And to top it off, I met some friends for a delicous
mexican dinner! Now that's the perfect day in my book!
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