Sunday Funday!

What a beautiful day! It started out kind of chilly with temps of around 38' but by noon time it was 70'. Yes, 70'! Welcome to Colorado!
So many places to go photograph, it was a challenge to decide where to go. I finally decided to head over to Rocky Mt. Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. I was hoping to see some bald eagles, bison and hawks too.
As you drive through the bison area, there is this large sign. There is not way I would get out of the car but I'm sure there are people that would take a chance.

Sometimes the bison herd are close to the road but not this morning. So I got this pic of brown dots with the mountains in the background.

Mule deer are plentiful as they safe from the hunters.

The arsenal refuge is just northeast of Denver, so when you look west you get great views of the mountains.

As I was driving around, I spotted this big guy posing for me!

Well, no eagles and no hawks were seen. In fact, it was pretty quiet. So I drove over to my favorite spot in Lakewood. It's a quick 20 minute drive especially on Sunday as there was no traffic.

I call Belmar lake my favorite spot for many reasons. One of them is I am almost guaranteed
to see something cool every time I go. Today was no different! I walked to the edge of the lake and started to scan the lake through my camera lens. I heard lots of splashing right in front of me. Cool! Two male mallards were fighting! The one mallard had a mate and the other male was attempting to steal her away. They battled for about a minute or so before the intruder was forced to retreat!

It is always good to see the robins return even though we know more snow is still to come before spring is really here.

As I walked around the lake I spotted a pair of shovelers in their usual spot. This is the male, so handsome!

I almost kept walking when I spotted something near the shovelers. Yup! It was a northern pintail! I have only seen them over at the south Platte river, so this was a treat!

I was almost all they way around the lake when I saw this pair of gadwalls.

The small island in the middle of the lake usually is home to the cormorants. They are not back yet but a pair of great blue herons look to be setting up housekeeping. Last summer a pair attempted to start a family but it never happened. So hopefully they will be sucessful this year!

While I was watching the heron, this shoveler flew in for a landing.....

So while I was walking around, I thought I heard a wood duck calling. It was near a paved walking path that I never walk near. I did not find the wood duck( maybe it wasn't ever there) but it turned out great. A woman walking by shared with me that there was an eagle's nest right by her office only a few miles away. I grilled her for more info. Normally eagles nest in remote areas and it's usually against the law to get too close. But this pair nested in a protected area just on the other side of the chain link fence surrounding the reservoir. Sweet! As soon as I was done at my favorite place, I drove over to see the eagles. She was right! They were less than 40 yards from her office building. 
By this time, it's around 10:30am, so the sun was pretty harsh. But I took my chances to try for some good pics.

What a show they put on! First a crow showed up and harrassed them for a bit. Then the male flew off to get nesting material. Then they did a bit of mating to produce more eagles!

Wow! Wow! Wow! I will be back there next weekend and a bit earlier to have better light. And maybe I will be doing a blog about baby eagles this summer! Stay tuned!