My owl friends: Sunday at Walden Ponds

There are many reasons I live in Colorado. One of them is all the beautiful natural areas to go enjoy the wildlife and amazing scenery. So my plan was to get up and get over to Walden ponds as the sun was coming up. Walden ponds is located in east boulder. It's 102 acres with 5 ponds. It was originally a gravel pit until 1975 and then reclaimed as a nature area. It is named after Walden Toevs who was instrumental in getting this area turned into a nature preserve.

So as I said, my plan was to get there as the sun was coming up. I hoped to get some osprey pics with the nice soft morning light. But that darn sun came up way too fast. Oh well, it was still gonna be a fun morning.

Here is my view as I walked west toward the osprey nest.

I passed a fairly new GBH rookery. Looks like there are 2-3 nests. Once the leaves come
out, it will be hard to see these birds.

Mixed in with the GBH was a pair of red tailed hawks. They gave me many chances at some fun pics.

At one point, one of the hawks landed near a GBH nest. The herons were quite vocal in their displeasure. The hawk seemed to be messing with them and finally flew away. I couldn't get a pic as there were too many branches in the way but it was fun to watch.

I finally got over to the ospreys. Not the best pics so I will just have to go back soon.....

There was no wind which is pretty unusual lately. So I got this reflection shot.....

Here is what was reflected.....

After enjoying the osprey, I headed to the north end of Walden ponds. There were many song sparrows singing and this one kindly posed for me.

I headed over to the next pond and there were 8-10 pairs of redhead ducks. So beautiful!

And this canada goose was posing so nicely!

I continued on and saw some killdeer flying around. They are so friggin fast but I was able to get some decent flight shots.

Those massive floods we had last September are still very evident. There is a trail along the very north end of Walden ponds that was just pummeled by the floods.

This tree trunk used to be alongside the trail and the flood water moved it onto the trail!

I have no idea how long it will be before these trail are fully repaired....

When the trail got too damaged, I turned around and headed back to the main trail. That was when I spotted this birdy condo. There was a nesting pair of starlings on top and a pair of flickers underneath.

On my way back to the parking lot, this pair of canada geese were courting.....

Well, after a fun time at Walden ponds, it was Hazel's turn. So I headed home and picked her up. Some storm clouds were coming in, so we headed east to the Teller Farm Trail.

Hazel sure loves her tennis ball!

And since she learned how to swim, she also loves the water. A drainage ditch runs alongside the trail and it did not take long for Hazel to plop herself in the water.