July 31, 2020
A very pleasant morning at 6:40. A chilly 58 degrees under bright sunshine. Neither wind not clouds were of any consequence today. Walking was fantastic, not so much photography. The photo below is a terrible shot (and highly edited to boot) of what I believe is a Cooper’s Hawk. S/he was bouncing around from branch to branch in heavy foliage and deep shade. This is the third day in a row that I have encountered these hawks (there were two of them today) so I guess they must have a nest in the area. I will keep trying. Today’s featured…
July 30, 2020
Arrived this morning with the sun (6:40) and a pleasant 62 degree temperature. No clouds, no wind. Along with it being a great walking day it turned out to be a great birding day, too. Once again I spotted what I believe to be a Cooper’s Hawk while I was escorting Whisper on his brief tour. The bird was waaaaaay up in a tree and appeared to be having a little something for breakfast. Then, when I headed out on my own I saw a lot of my old favorites a few of whom challenged me to photograph them. I…
July 29, 2020
The sun is coming up later these days so we are getting started later. This morning it was 6:30 with a very pleasant 64 degrees. Not many clouds and a slight breeze made for a very pleasant hike. It’s a good thing the walk was a pleasant one (and well worth the trip out) because nothing was happening in the photography department. The best shot I (almost) had was of one of the Osprey adults in the nest but s/he flew off as I approached. So I am compelled to reach back into my archive and post a couple evening…
July 28, 2020
An oddly foggy morning kept us in early this morning. Skipping today would have meant missing a fourth walk in a row so I finally decided to venture out at 9:40 in clearing skies and a temperature approaching 70. Lake Pueblo State Park was much busier at this “late” hour than what we are used to. The extra folks and the warmish temperature made me limit the walk to just the dog-walking part. Even though the walk was shorter than normal I still managed to get a peak at the Osprey nest and the Heron nest – both of which…
July 24, 2020
Warmth continues this morning – 65 degrees with less humidity than yesterday. Once again the eastern horizon had fairly heavy clouds. The difference today was that the clouds at least had some definition and a few of them might even have been referred to as “fluffy”. Still the light was not great at 6:15 when we did the first leg of the day’s hike. Probably shouldn’t label it the “first” leg since it turned out to be the only leg. Not much was going on today on the trail. Not many birds were around and no deer showed up at…
July 23, 2020
A warmer day this morning – 63 degrees with humidity in the 50% range. If the sky had been cloud free it would have been a tough walk. Lucky for Whisper (my trusty canine buddy) and me the sky was a blanket of shapeless clouds that only allowed hints of sunlight to reach the ground. We started walking at 6:15 after waiting in the car for a while hoping that a little more light would pierce the gloom. I had some success getting pictures of the Summer’s bird population though I don’t think that National Geographic is going to be…
July 22, 2020
When we arrived this morning at our walking site at 6:10 it was already 60 degrees. The Sun was getting a lot of resistance from numerous clouds so the light today was spotty. Birds were not the highlight of today’s outing. I did get one so-so shot of an American Kestrel but, as always, s/he was so high up in the tree that getting a sharp focus was not really possible. In desperation I switched to manual focus but by the time I was ready to give it a try the bird flew off. So today it was Mule Deer…
July 21, 2020
Weather is heating up again. It was 62 degrees at 6:10 this morning under an essentially cloudless sky and no breeze at all. Another low activity day bird-wise. I could see the Osprey in their nest as I drove into the park but by the time my hike got me back there camera in hand there was no one around. Things were a little better over at the heron nest as there was one of the big birds standing and preening in the nest. I have many shots like this so I did not immortalize the happenings. I had a…