A beautiful Autumn Sunday

I am loving the weather! Nice and cool plus the light is so beautiful this time of year. So I headed out to Barr Lake to see if my barn owl friends were around. They were not and it was very quiet in the park. Lots of mallards and shovelers out on the lake and that was about it. Oh well, the views to the west were gorgeous. Check out the snow on the mountains......

So I jumped in the car and headed down to my favorite spot in Lakewood. A female northern shoveler swam by not realizing I was there.....

I continued around and spotted this duck. It took me a bit to remember this is a lesser scaup. They head north in the summer, so are returning to winter around here. I'm pretty sure this is a female.....

I walked over to the back lake to see if anything was going on. This tiny squirrel was hanging around looking so very cute!

These guys are buffleheads. They are also coming in to winter around here.....

Again, it was pretty quiet so I headed up to Prospect park. I was barely in the parking lot and spotted a male wood duck. He looks like his breeding plumage is just coming in....

I walked my usual loop enjoying the beautiful day. I spotted something up in the tree. At first I thought it was a hawk. Nope! It was a black crown night heron.....

He looked me right in the eye a few times wondering what my intentions were. He soon realized I just wanted to admire him, so he relaxed.

Well, I can't complain. I always enjoy seeing a variety of birds and mammals when I go out photographing. So even though today was fairly quiet, it was a great day to be out in Nature!

Thanks for reading