Environment:
Start Time: 6:40 AM Temperature: 56 degrees Sky: Sun with light wildfire haze.
Near perfect conditions were present out on the trail this morning – save for the ten million mosquitoes who insisted on joining me on my standard tour. I guess everyone has to eat. Speaking of eating – I caught one of the Osprey parents (featured image above) feeding a fresh fish to her (?) younglings. It looks to me like there might be three of them. Otherwise things were pretty mellow. I did find the young Red-tailed Hawk in its nest but without parental supervision (or fish). Another bird that I caught without a fish was the Great Blue Heron pictured here. It was perched high up a tree pretty far from the Arkansas River which, by the way, had a noticeably lower water level. Still I have not seen any ducks on the river – only geese and cormorants.
Sightings:
Birds: Canada Geese, Double Crested Cormorants, Mourning Doves, Kingbirds (E&W), Bullock’s Oriole, Wren, American Kestrel, American Robins, Ospreys, Great Blue Heron, Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Barn Swallows, Red-tailed Hawk
Critters: Mule Deer, Monarch Butterfly, Cabbage White Butterflies, mosquitoes, Grasshoppers
Gear: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Lumix 100-300mm
