Environment:
Start Time: 6:30 AM Temperature: 63 degrees Sky: Sunny with a few decorative clouds.
I am not sure if it is correct to refer to early morning sunrise conditions as stellar – but I can’t think of a better way to describe this morning out on the trail. To top it off I managed to capture two Great Horned Owls. The second one is today’s featured image and another angle of the same bird is included in the mini-gallery at the bottom of this post. This owl was sitting in (and facing) the direct morning light with not a care in the world. The other owl was harder to spot – it preferring the shade. I only did discover the shady owl because I was scanning the trees for Cooper’s Hawks but came up empty on that search. There wasn’t much happening on the Arkansas River today but I did capture a male Belted Kingfisher watching it very closely. There were a number of Common Sandpipers also focused on the river.
A Common Sandpiper working on the Arkansas River at Lake Pueblo State Park, Colorado August 15, 2022
Sightings:
Birds: Mallards, Osprey, Killdeer, Starlings, Mourning Doves, Canada Geese, Belted Kingfisher, Western Wood Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Western Kingbirds, Common Sandpiper, Great Horned Owls, Common Grackles, Double Crested Cormorants, Blue Grosbeak, Northern Flicker
Critters: Grasshoppers, Mule Deer, Red Ants, Wood Louse, Prairie Dog, Pinacate Beetle
Gear: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Panasonic Lumix 100-300mm
