Environment:
Start Time: 7:50 AM Temperature: 51 degrees Sky: Sunshine few clouds.
Magnificent weather persists out on the Rock Canyon Trail. Generally speaking, nesting (and making babies) seems to be what the birds are focusing on. As an example, today’s featured image (above) is an Osprey lifting up from the bank of the Arkansas River not with a fish, as I expected, but with claws full of muddy, stringy river gook which s/he delivered back to the nest. Another spectacle that I witnessed (but was unable to photograph) was a group of Great Blue Herons flying around high up in the sky chasing after each other rather vigorously. I have rarely seen this many herons all at once. Not everyone was nesting, though. Pictured below is a female Red-winged Blackbird chowing down on the Cottonwood blossoms (?) which are coming in strong. The mini-gallery at the bottom of this post is a collection of smaller birds who were out working the trees. I hope this weather holds.
Sightings:
Birds: Mallards, Wood Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Canada Geese, Osprey, American Robin, European Starlings, Double-crested Cormorants, White-crowned Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Turkey Vultures, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Blue Jays, Red-winged Blackbirds, American Kestrel, Great Blue Herons, Common Grackle
Critters: Mule Deer, Red Ants
Gear: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm
White-crowned Sparrow basking in the morning sunshine at Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado April 21, 2022 
Northern Flicker hard at work at Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado April 21, 2022 
Male Hairy Woodpecker seeing what a Cottonwood has to offer at Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado April 21, 2022