Environment:
Start Time: 8:55 AM Temperature: 35 degrees Sky: Sunny.
Super conditions out at Lake Pueblo State Park this morning. Even at 35 degree air temperature it was pretty warm. There were lots of birds to cap things off, too. This was one of my best birding days in quite some time. I saw two Great Horned Owls along with hawks – Cooper’s and Red-tailed and the Wood Ducks are coming back. Today’s featured image is a pair of them exploring the area for a comfortable nesting cavity. I don’t think this spot met requirements since the hen flew off shortly after I took this shot. The kitchen was probably too small. But the real excitement came when I spotted the second Great Horned Owl. “He” was nestled in the branches of a bushy tree and I was having trouble getting a clear shot. As I moved around to get a better view the owl took off and landed in a cottonwood a little distance away. So I started heading that way when a serious ruckus erupted from the aforementioned cottonwood. It turns out that there was (still is) an Cooper’s Hawk nest established there and one of the Cooper’s adults was none too pleased to have the owl that close. So I got to watch the smaller hawk very aggressively drive the owl away. The shot at the bottom of this post is the last chapter in this encounter. It looks like the owl is attacking the hawk but in reality it is just making a dive under it to make an escape. I got quite a few shots – mostly blurry – of the action. Wish it was always this good.
Sightings:
Birds: Pied-billed Grebes, Mallards, Gulls, Starlings, Ospreys, Canada Geese, American Robin, Great Blue Herons, Mourning Dove, Wood Ducks, Northern Flickers, Red-tailed Hawk, Great Horned Owls, Greater Yellowlegs, Cooper’s Hawks, Double Crested Cormorants, American Coots
Critters: Prairie Dog, Mule Deer, Rock Squirrel
Gear: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Lumix 100-300mm
