burrowing owls and friends

Whew! Summer finally got here. We had a nice wet spring but it wasn't enough to prevent the forest fires we have going on right now. Luckily there are no fires where I live but we do get the smokey smells.......

I've posted a few pics of the burrowing owls out near Barr lake recently. It's always in the morning and the light is not good to shoot the owls. So I decided to go over yesterday evening as the light hopefully would be better. Yeah! it was!
I quickly spotted a cute pair of owls hanging out. There was a pair of red tailed hawks hanging around too. When the hawks started circling to find dinner, the owls dove into their burrow. I waited for a few minutes but they did not come back out. So I headed into Barr Lake Park to see my barn owl friends. I got a quick glimpse of the barn owl but she didn't give me any pics. Must have been too busy with her young. I can hardly wait to see baby barn owls!

The mosquitoes were out in full force so I hustled back to the car! I decided to stop by to see the burrowing owls once more before I headed home. I am so glad I did! One of them was waiting for me.......

 It was a very fun evening, so I headed home to get some sleep. I got up early to go out and do some more photographing. I headed down to my favorite spot. I knew it was too early for baby avocets but it never hurts to check.....
I just saw one of the avocets, so maybe the other one was sitting on the nest.....

I enjoyed watching the avocet and then went looking for momma wood duck. I did not see her but did see my black crown night heron friend.

Some people walked by and we all enjoyed the heron. The gentleman mentioned that he had seen snapping turtles around. Hmmmm I had never seen a snapper but I could see that this would be a great place for them to live.

I continued around the lake and saw this cute bird. I think it's a young house finch. Pretty cute,huh?

I was over at the last pond when I saw something in the water. At first I thought it was a log but then realized it was a snapping turtle. Ha! Guess I wasn't surprised as the gentleman I chatted with had mentioned they lived here.

As I was watching the turtle, I saw a muskrat swimming around. He stretched up and grabbed some yummy tree leaves and swam right towards me. It was challenging to get a good pic. The camera kept focusing on the leaves instead of the muskrat......but you get the idea.....

Momma mallards were all around the lake. How cute!!!!

Here's the turtles I usually see. These are western painted turtles....

I headed home with a quick stop at Prospect Park. It was pretty quiet but I did see a pair of cedar wax wings working on their nest. And I saw the location of the nest! Stay tuned for baby cedar wax wing pics!

Thanks for reading!