Since I spent all day Saturday doing yard work, I decided to spend today photographing.
I headed over to Barr lake to see if I could find the barn owl, burrowing owls and anyone else that cared to have their photo taken.
First I walked over to where the burrowing owls are supposed to be. Supposedly, they are just behind the nature center building. Bummer, no luck. So I decided to head over to find the barn owl. It's about a mile walk to where I saw the barn owl last week. Damn, my legs were tired and sore from all the yard work. Oh well, I just walked slower than normal.
Again I struck out with the barn owl. But I did see this cute house wren......
Now I had to walk 1 mile back to the nature center and go hike the trails to the west. My legs were not happy......
This cute killdeer helped me forget my aching legs :)
I was almost back to the center and saw the swainson's hawk. I think he's in the same tree as last Sunday.
I got to the trail heading west. As I was walking along the board walk, I could see a bald eagle about a 1/2 mile away. My aching legs felt better as I hustled over to see the eagle up close. I got some unusul angles of this guy as I had to walk under the tree he was sitting in. Kind of cool.....
As I doubled back from seeing the eagle, I spotted a rabbit gathering nesting material. I thought she'd get scared and hide from me but she did not. So I decided to stay and watch. It was so fun! She gathered mouthfuls of nesting material, then hopped over to her nest( a hole in the ground) went in and arranged it to her liking. I was less than 5 feet from her at times and she was not one bit nervous! In fact it seemed she enjoyed the company. Now this does not seem normal to me. That this sweet rabbit would be comfortable with my presence. But then it dawned on me. I had rescued a baby bunny that Zoe caught the other day and reunited him with his mom. So maybe the rabbit spirit guides were rewarding me for my kindness.......
I thanked the sweet rabbit and continued on. I saw this sparrow but am not sure which on it is.
I've been seeing lots of blue winged teals this year. Here's the handsome male.....
This is a terrible pic but when I saw this phesant, I just had to try to get a pic. There are farms right next to the refuge, so I assumed it was someone's pet. But when I spoke with a volunteer at the nature center, she said they were wild! Cool! Not I just have to get a decent pic......
The yellow rumped warblers are still around. I just love their colors!
I was almost back to the nature center when this townsend's solitaire posed for me.
So now I'm back at the nature center and was hoping to see the burrowing owls. I met a volunteer with a spotting scope who kindly showed me where they were. We only had to hike a short distance and we were able to see them. They were too far out of range to get a photo but it was very fun to see them. The nature center volunteer was a very nice gal. I was wearing my Yankee hat, so she shared she was also from NY. We got to chatting and she shared she actually worked at the original Woodstock festival. Wow! She must have some very cool stories to tell about that. We ended up chatting for over an hour. We even learned we both went to the same community college in upstate NY. So fun!
While we were chatting people were walking by. Someone asked about the burrowing owls. We told him where they were but that they were too far to get a decent photo. Well, he mentioned he had just seen some out on Picadilly road. Oh yeah, I knew where he was talking about. So I jumped in the car to go check it out.
Score!!! I spotted one from the car! So I quietly got out and grabbed a few pics. He was a bit far out in the field, so I figured I should use the tripod to get some better pics. It took a minute to set up the tripod and by the time I did, he had disappeared into his burrow. But I only had to wait for a minute or two before he reappeared. Looks like he's eating a yummy spider.
In fact, these guys do eat insects, reptiles, small birds and mammals. They are only 8-9 inches tall and live in burrows. Either old prairie dog homes or they will dig their own if necessary.
So I'm having a great time taking his picture when his mate popped up...cool!
Wow! Wow! Wow! I had only seen burrowing owls from afar, so this made my day!
It was time to head home but I made a slight detour. I had met some gals bird watching at Barr lake. They told me about a great horned owl nest with four, yes FOUR chicks! I had to see that.
And yup there are four! You can see three and there's one tucked behind. OMG! Those parents are working their butts off feeding these guys!
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