December 19, 2022

I’m BACK! After a bumpy start to December, I finally have recovered my health and found a day with weather too nice to keep me indoors. Lake Pueblo State Park seems to have done well without me and I was delighted to see some bird activity in the trees and on the Arkansas River. Today’s featured image is a Red-tailed Hawk (a juvenile, I suspect) who was keeping a close eye on the ground activity from a high perch. Two types of what I call Winter Ducks are back on the river – pictured here is a Bufflehead hen who was shaking off the water after a dive. Common Goldeneye hens were present on my last walk in November but today I saw a number of Drakes swimming around, too. The mini-gallery (below) is two crops of the same image of a Great Horned Owl. The first on demonstrates the effectiveness of the big bird’s natural camouflage and the second is a more isolated view. This particular owl made me work for these shots.