Revealing the Hidden Beauty of Colorado
Environment:Start Time: 7:15 AM Temperature: 60 degrees Sky: Sunshine, haze with almost no breeze. Sightings:Birds: Mallards, Osprey, Double Crested Cormorants, Canada Geese, Mourning Doves, Ring-billed Gull, American Yellow Warbler, Great Horned Owl, Common Grackle, Green Heron, Starlings, KilldeerCritters: Cabbage Butterfly, Orange Sulphur Butterfly, Prairie Dogs, Stink Beetles, Bobcat, Mule Deer, Grasshoppers Gear: Nikon D5600, 55-300mm
Environment:Start Time: 6:50 AM Temperature: 64 degrees Sky: Sunshine, light haze few clouds I was greeted upon my arrival at Lake Pueblo State Park this morning with silence. When I got out of the car there was practically no sounds to be heard. Certainly no birds. It was weird. It was a little humid and the relative lack of wildfire haze really allowed the Sun’s radiant heat to bear down. Maybe this heat was keeping everyone subdued. Even though I did see a nice variety of birds I only managed a portraits and none were all that good. Today’s featured…
Environment:Start Time: 6:35 AM Temperature: 62 degrees Sky: Wildfire haze filtered sunshine Sightings:Birds: Mallards, Starlings, Osprey, Barn Swallows, Double Crested Cormorants, Western Kingbirds, American Robins, Canada Geese, Mississippi Kite, Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, Redheaded Woodpecker, Orchard Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, unidentified long legged wading bird, Great Blue Heron, Blue JayCritters: Cabbage Butterfly, Prairie Dogs, Mule Deer
Environment:Start Time: 7:50 AM Temperature: 63 degrees Sky: Heavy clouds with light breeze Very gloomy this morning at Lake Pueblo State Park. It rained yesterday evening and into the overnight hours leaving everything wet. Very wet. Even the air was wet – humidity in the 80% range. Considering the conditions I can’t hold it against all my bird buddies for just hunkering down. I photographed only two birds on this outing. Today’s featured image (above) is a rare sighting of an Orchard Oriole. Below is a Hairy Woodpecker doing his thing. The thing about these two photos is that I…
Environment:Start Time: 6:40 AM Temperature: 65 degrees Sky: Sunshine few clouds light breeze Another clear and sunny morning at Lake Pueblo State Park. Much less cloud cover this morning and maybe a little less wildfire haze. I was not unaware of the warmth as I walked around the park. Even at a “cool” 65, once that sunlight hits you it makes an impression. There wasn’t a lot of excitement again this trip. Only three birds even gave me a chance at a shot and all are posted here. Today’s featured image is a Hairy Woodpecker who was the hardest of…
Environment:Start Time: 8:20 AM Temperature: 54 degrees Sky: Sunny, no clouds, light breeze Warm again this morning. A bit of a breeze was fluttering those leaves with the fortitude to still be on their tree. Yesterday I had many opportunities to chase the smaller birds around but today things were much quieter. The smallest bird I managed to shoot was a Hairy Woodpecker, though I have to admit I passed on a couple of White-Crowned Sparrows who were doing their best to be photographed. My luck was better with bigger birds today. I spotted a Red-Tailed Hawk early on the…
Arrived this morning with the sun (6:40) and a pleasant 62 degree temperature. No clouds, no wind. Along with it being a great walking day it turned out to be a great birding day, too. Once again I spotted what I believe to be a Cooper’s Hawk while I was escorting Whisper on his brief tour. The bird was waaaaaay up in a tree and appeared to be having a little something for breakfast. Then, when I headed out on my own I saw a lot of my old favorites a few of whom challenged me to photograph them. I…
A warmer day this morning – 63 degrees with humidity in the 50% range. If the sky had been cloud free it would have been a tough walk. Lucky for Whisper (my trusty canine buddy) and me the sky was a blanket of shapeless clouds that only allowed hints of sunlight to reach the ground. We started walking at 6:15 after waiting in the car for a while hoping that a little more light would pierce the gloom. I had some success getting pictures of the Summer’s bird population though I don’t think that National Geographic is going to be…
Well, we are back to sunshine and clear skies. Fifty six degrees and no wind at 6:50. Though there were plenty of birds bouncing around the park, very few of them had time enough to spare for quick photo shoot. I caught the Hairy Woodpecker on the left as he was focusing on finding some breakfast. I have been experimenting with different auto-focus methods on the Nikon. I normally use the AF-S single focus setting but today I was using the AF-A function. I am not really pleased with this photo – I think the focus is just a little…
Another late start got us to the park at 7:45 with around a 54 degree temp. Not so much activity this morning either animal or human. The sun was pretty high up so it looks like I may have to start coming even earlier. Bird activity was especially low compared to yesterday. Perched birds were well out of range as were those I saw in flight. I did see one of those Tropical Kingbirds but only one. No Orioles and only one duck. The only shot I got was a dismal one of a Hairy Woodpecker. He was not interested…