A Quiet Day at Belmar

I love the first morning light for photographing! This time of year with the days still getting longer means I have to get up pretty darn early if I wanna make that happen. I wanted to be at my favorite place by 6am. That meant I needed to be up around 4:30am....ouch! 

With breakfast and a big cup of coffee in hand, I was out the door at 5am and headed down to my favorite spot. I checked on the cooper's hawks first but all was quiet. So I started my first loop.

Baby ducks and geese were everywhere! Here's a cute duckling.......

Then I spotted this cute barn swallow.....

The cormorants are doing very well! Here is a youngster. They are flying pretty good but still counting on mom and dad for food.

Here's an adult........

I heard the distinctive call of the yellow warbler. He was high up in a tree but I had to try to get some pics.....

All was quiet as I headed back to the swainson's nest. There was no sign of the hawks. I'm guessing one of the parents was on the nest which is not visible and the other one was out getting breakfast.

I walked past the back pond and almost missed the snowy egret. This guy was having great luck at getting breakfast but he wasn't in a good spot for pics. Of course I had to try.....

It was still pretty quiet as I checked on the cooper's nest for a second time. Now I could see one of the parents sitting on the nest. Their eggs should be hatching any day now!

Started my second loop and saw these youngsters soaking up the sun!

How cute are they!

It was still pretty quiet as I returned to the back pond and swainson's nest. The snowy egret was still around and then I spotted these tree swallows. The female was sitting on a branch and the male was peeking out of their nest box. 

The swainson's were still a no show so I headed back towards the gazebo. I was about ready to call it a day when I spotted one of the avocets in their usual spot. So I headed over to get a few pics. The light was getting pretty harsh but I had to give it a try. No avocet chicks yet.......

While watching the avocet, I was right near another tree swallow nest. Besides being so cute, they eat tons of insects including mosquitoes. Yea for swallows!

It was already getting hot and it was very quiet, so I decided to head home. I drove by the open space offices on Cherryvale rd in Boulder to see if the bobolinks were around.

Yup! I love seeing them!  Two males flew in, sang for me and then flew off! 

Well, it was a fun morning. Any day I get to go photographing is a good day no matter what I see.

I have a request for the people that get my blog e-mailed to them. This website only allows me to e-mail the blog to ten e-mail addresses. So I just want to update my e-mail list and make sure you still want the blog mailed to you. If I do not hear from you, I will assume you no longer want the blog e-mailed to you. So if you do want it, e-mail me at alexaboyes@mac.com and I will keep you on the e-mail list. There are other ways to see my blog. You can "like" mollydogdesigns on Facebook or if you have a gmail account, you can "follow" the blog.

Thanks for reading!