My owl friends: Coffee With The Owls

I decided to go to Walden Ponds in Boulder to photograph today. With Spring upon us, I was hoping there might be lots going on. I realized that I'd drive right by my owl friends, so I stopped there first. The sun was just coming up.......

My owl friends have moved to a new home this year. They used their previous nest for about 7 years. It was a great location for photographs but over the years, the nest cavity in the dead tree had become pretty dilapidated. Their new nest cavity is not very conducive for photographs and I'm actually happy about that. It had gotten pretty crazy the last couple of years with many photographers looking to get pics of the owlets.

So the owls should get some peace and quiet from the paparazzi ...........

The nest is in a giant cottonwood tree. So I walked up to the tree and put my hand on it. I knew Cher was in the nest high up in the tree. Intuitively I got there were two eggs and they were both female. And the new nest was working nicely.

I heard a noise above me and when I walked backwards a bit I could see Sonny perched high in the nest tree. After a few minutes he flew off and I could see he had some breakfast in his talons......

I was hoping Cher might come out of the nest but no luck, so I said good bye and headed over to Walden ponds. Little did I know that seeing my owl friends was the highlight of the day. While there was lots of action at Walden ponds, hardly anyone was in a good place for a pic. I heard the killdeer, saw green wing teals, a cinnamon teal and a red tailed hawk too. A great blue heron flew over me but too high for a pic. Oh well, it was a nice morning to be out except that a wildfire had started early this morning in the foothills above Boulder. The wind was blowing the smoke east....right where I was.

This female goldfinch posed for a pic.....

The towhees were all over the place singing their song. Their favorite place to hang out is the bushes, so it took a bit to get a decent shot.

The robins were quite plentiful too......

After walking around for a couple of hours and not getting many pics, I moved on to 75th street. I also struck out there too. So I started heading for home with a few stops along the way. I checked on a pair of kestrels that live near coot lake but they were not around. There were 3 flickers doing some courting.....