My owl friends: Where was the Sun!

We have been having some very windy days! So when I saw the weather report for today, I was excited. It said no wind, sunny and temps in the 40's. Perfect! A great day to get out and photograph.
So I was up by 6am and took Hazel for a quick walk. Hmmm even though it was still dark, I could see it was quite cloudy. Oh well, I was sure it would burn off as soon as the sun came up. So I got everything I needed and jumped in the car. I decided to head over to the south Platte river to see what was going on. Lots of waterfowl spend the winter there and sometimes an eagle or some hawks are around.
Crap! It was still very cloudy when I got to my destination. Still hoping it would burn off, I walked down the trail by the river. The water temp were warmer than the air temp, so lots of steam was coming off the river.

I walked around for a bit hoping the sun would appear. There were lots of ducks on the river but the light was too low to get a decent pic. So I gave up and decided to drive over to my favorite spot in Lakewood. I figured it would take about a 1/2 hour to get there. Maybe the sun would make an appearance......

Nope! The light was still very low as I walked around Belmar lake. Not much was going on, so I decided to stop at Prospect park.

It was still very cloudy and cold too as I explored around Prospect. This female mallard seemed to be enjoying the snow.

I headed over to see if my owl friends were around. I had checked the nest area( from last year) last week but did not see any activity. A fellow photographer shared a sighting of the owls in a new location, so I went to check it out. And there she was keeping her eggs toasty warm on this cold day.
This is an old cooper's hawk nest. GHO's typically do not make their own nest but claim one that is already made.
It is in a great location as far as privacy for the owls. Last year their nest was right on a walking trail. They seemed to do okay with all the human acitivity but maybe they wanted some peace and quiet this year. Only a few people know the exact location of this new nest, so it will be a well kept secret and the owls will be happy!