My owl friends: Thanksgiving Day Fun

One of the many reason I love living in Colorado is the weather. Sure we can have a snowy Thanksgiving but usually we have a sunny day with temperatures around 50'.
And today was one of those days! Sunny and pleasantly cool. A perfect day to head out for some photographing......
I headed over to Barr Lake State Park. I was hoping to see some bald eagles but it was very quiet. So I decided to head over to the south Platte river. I had not been there since last winter, so it was time and not far from Barr Lake. I was hoping to see northern pintails and there they were! So beautiful and fun to see each winter. They breed and nest in the northern parts of USA and into Canada. Then they come south for the winter. This is the male pintail. The females were around but didn't want their pic taken :)

I finally pulled myself away from the pintails and got this female golden eye flying by....
I always get excited when I nail an in-flight pic. They are very challenging to get which makes it all the more special when I do get them.

I also got a green winged teal as it flew by.....

Here are a few pics of the south platte river. It originates in Park county which is south west of Denver. Then it runs north through Denver and eventually goes east into Nebraska.
The floods we had a couple of months ago were still very evident here.

This tree is at least 20-30 feet above the water levels right now. That is all debris stuck in the tree from the flooding. Wow! That river was very high!

After having fun here, I decided to drive over to Belmar Lake( my favorite place).
Right away I spotted a female bufflehead and a female hooded merganser hanging out together.....

I always see mallards which is why I hardly ever take their picture. But I just had to get a pic of this cute couple.

A male green winged teal and two females were chowing down....

I spotted something in the tree and realized it was a paper wasp nest. It was the size of a basketball! So cool.......

I was walking down the trail and this guy was less than two feet away just enjoying his lunch.

I headed over to the back pond to see what was going on. There were three lesser scaup males hanging out enjoying the day.

There was a male common goldeneye trying to impress the female.

This is the female goldeneye totally not impressed....

The hooded merganser with a few water droplets on him.....

I continued over to the gazebo and spotted this mallard swimming under me....

This male bufflehead was diving for his lunch. They are very fast so it took a bit before I got this butt shot.....

And this northern shoveler swam by so I took his pic....

Whew! I was tired and hungry, so it was time to head home. As I pulled up to my apartment, I spotted a kestrel sitting in the open space by my house....