This Week in Pics

It was an interesting week weather wise here in lovely Boulder, Colorado. Most everyday I woke up to cloudy skies getting ready to dump rain. So Hazel and I changed up our routine a little bit. We parked right next to Coot lake and hiked around it. In case the skies opened up, we could get back to the car fairly easily.

On Tuesday as we started our hike, I spotted a few cedar wax wings flitting around. Damn! I'd love to get some pics of them! Oh well, I filed them in my memories banks for future reference. Finally on Friday, the skies were clear. So I brought my camera along for our hike. I looked for them where I had seen there before but no luck. So Hazel and I did a lap

and then checked back. Bingo! There they were!

As I've mentioned before, I love to go out photographing on Sunday mornings. And I was planning to that this morning. But at the last minute I decided to take Hazel for a hike with the camera and then go see the burrowing owls later in the day.

So we went down to the hiking trail on CU property in south Boulder. I lived close to this area when I got Hazel, so it was our old stomping grounds and fun to revisit.
There wasn't much to photograph, so after our hike I drove over to the open space offices on Cherryvale. I got lucky spotting this say's phoebe and the bobolink.

As I was photographing the bobolink, I spotted this squirrel just hanging out. It seemed kind of unusual as there are no trees close by. So he was out in the open just asking to be somebody's lunch. I suggested he might find a better place to hang out and he disappeared into the tall grasses......

 So after spending a relaxing afternoon, I headed out to see my burrowing owl friends. It was 92' but I was willing to take the heat to check on the owls. Just as I drove down Piccadilly Rd, a swainson's hawk flew up onto a telephone pole. I thought about grabbing 
a pic but decided I wanted owl pics more. So I parked the car and looked for the owls. Just then a couple of western kingbirds started harassing the hawk and he flew right by me....

see that small wing coming out of the hawk's wing? That's a kingbird!

Finally the kingbirds gave up and left the hawk alone...

There was still no sign of the burrowing owls. But then I remembered there was another burrowing owl community along the DIA loop. So I did the 5 minute drive to go check it out. Sweet! there were some owls! The light was pretty harsh but I had to give it go.....

After enjoying the owls I started to head home. Then I remembered there was swainson's nest at the corner of Trussville and 120th. I took a quick look up and there was mom with her chick! The sun was directly behind the nest making for very harsh light. So I was pretty happy to get these pics.

All in all, it was a very fun day and week too! Thanks for reading!