June 07, 2020

Bright and sunny is the only description for today’s visit to Lake Pueblo State Park. Temperature was 54 degrees with only the hint of a breeze.

Once again Whisper and I were able to spot a couple of Great Horned Owls hanging out in the trees lining the bank of the Arkansas River. The hardest thing about photographing owls is spotting them on their perches. They blend in so well with the tree trunks and branches, not to mention the new Spring leaves hiding them, that you really have to look closely. Once you do see one you can move pretty close without causing them to take flight.

I was surprised to see Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks actually floating on the river. This is something you don’t normally see when the river is running as high and fast as it is now. The geese even had a rather large gosling in the water with them though they were keeping it quite close to the river bank.

Two other sightings of note. First, on our way into the park I saw a Red-tail Hawk perched high on top of one of the (too) many power poles running through. This in itself is not worthy of note. What caught my eye was another smaller bird, possibly a Kestrel, that was dive bombing the bigger bird with some dedication. I know he was scoring some good hits but the hawk was still on station when we drove back out. The other sort of different thing was the swallow activity. They were very busy this morning but they were not patrolling over the river as they usually do. Instead they were blasting around and above the forested areas by the picnic grounds. I’m not sure why this was but perhaps it has something to do with the speed of the river water.

Sightings:
Birds: Starlings, Robin, Swallows, Barn Swallow, Osprey, Tropical Kingbirds, Red-tail Hawk, Blue Jay, Meadowlark, Mallard Ducks, Canada Geese, Kestrel, Great Horned Owl, Flicker, Red-tail Hawk
Critters: Cottontail Rabbit, Raccoon (tail), Cabbage Butterfly

---

Gear: Nikon D5100, 55-200mm, 55-300mm