Photo Gallery and Blog 2018

There are several bald eagles that hang out around here. Occasionally I see one, typically in a tree, far away. On this rare fortuitous occasion it was sitting nonchalantly on a roadside power pole and with uncharacteristic good luck, I actually had my camera along.

Sometimes the eagle likes to sit on this dead tree high above the road. It ignores most traffic but a loud motorcycle will get its attention. There was a strong wind this day but the eagle had no trouble hanging on with its big gnarly feet.

It's a better photo when they sit side by side.
"You have some goose feathers on your face, dear."
"Are you serious?"
"I'm always serious."

We have lots of white pelicans around here, especially during migration. They like to go fishing in groups. A flock of them paddle and splash to gather the fish, then they all plunge their heads into the water to try to scoop up something for dinner.

Both genders develop that flat bump on their beaks during breeding season. The bottom part of their beaks is actually a huge pouch.
"A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can." - Dixon Lanier Merritt

Pelicans have nine-foot wingspans, with black wingtips that are hidden when folded. In flight their feet are tucked up under their tails, until they descend for a landing. The glide down with their feet dangling and skid across the water.

The friendly screech owls are still here, and nesting in the same tree hole again this year. This is the female, pretty much filling the hole.

The male owl caught this large vole and brought it back to the nest for the owlets. Good news for the owlets. Not so good for the vole.

There are four owlets in this year's brood. These three were jostling for a view of the great outdoors. It reminds me of Mount Rushmore.

For about a week, the owlets remained perched high up in the tree above their nest hole and snoozed. They began hopping from branch to branch while fluttering their tiny wings. As their wing feathers grew, their hopping and fluttering evolved into flying. Their landings were clumsy at first but they learned quickly. Even when they could fly between trees, they still roosted together during the daytime, snoozing until dusk.

Around dusk, when the light is fading, the owlets wake up, stretch their wings and preen themselves. The siblings help each other since they can't preen the top of their own heads.

Two weeks after fledging, the owlets can fly easily. Sometimes an owlet would land on a perch right in front of me, so of course I had to take its photo.

Owls have excellent hearing and vision so they hunt for food by waiting quietly and staring intently at the ground, watching and listening for any activity. I really wonder how they can find anything with the wind blowing the grass and ambient noise but somehow they do.

I got to see the owl in action. She spotted something interesting in the grass, and dove down and disappeared into the tall grass. After some rustling of the grass, she appeared with a very fresh vole. This adorable little owl is actually a proficient killer.

Mama owl took a few bites, then flew over to feed the owlets. She ripped off small bits and fed them to one owlet at a time.

Since the owls snooze until dusk, photos have to be taken in poor light conditions. The magic of digital photography allows adjustment of the color balance to remove that intense bluish tint of evening light and make the photo look pretty much normal. A good way to know just how dark it was is to look at the size of the owl's pupils. When they are this big, it was really dark.

These two owlets landed on this perch directly in front of the moon. It may give an idea of just how dark it was.

Mid June is typically when the cavity nesting birds' eggs hatch and the parents are busy feeding their hungry chicks for the next two or three weeks. This is a good time for photos because the adults make many trips to the nest hole carrying some unfortunate insect, sometimes landing on a photogenic spot on the way in or out. This year I expected to see that again, but I was surprised to discover the chicks were already full grown. Rather than entering the nest, the parents stayed on the side of the tree and tossed bugs into the gaping mouths of the chicks.

Pretty soon this chick appeared in the entrance of the nest hole. This is unusual--the chicks typically stay invisible in the back of the hole. Then it advanced to the very brink of the hole. It looked all around. Ten seconds later, it fledged. It flew very well for its first flight and landed in a nearby pine tree.

The fledgling bluebird sat there in the pine tree, holding on for dear life as the strong wind shook the tree. It made typical bluebird sounds so the parents could find it and feed it. I think it's funny how baby birds look grumpy because of the downturned curve of their beaks. These bluebirds may very well be full of joy and happiness inside.

I finally got motivated to go up Mount Evans and look for mountain goats. Of course the best light is early light but it's tough to get up super early and drive up there before sunrise at 5:30am, so it's a bummer when the lazy goats don't show up until 8:30am. Even so, they are fun to see. This one adult was just staring pensively into space. The youngster was bleating loudly for its mom, to get breakfast.

The youngsters romp around on the blooming tundra, sometimes climbing over each other. They are kids, after all.

There are some great horned owls that have lived in this cemetery for many years. Most owls are hard to see, hiding in trees, but these owls sit on the headstones in plain sight. It reinforces the spooky atmosphere, as if a cemetery at dusk wasn't creepy enough...

They prefer the taller headstones but short ones are satisfactory too.

They nest here every year and are successful about half the time, including this year. By late summer, the owlets have grown and have learned from their parents, sitting on random headstones too.

A moose family was leisurely grazing in a shallow lake in RMNP. This bull was chomping on vegetation while warily watching the people.

The cow moose was up to her eyeballs looking for something to eat. Then she raised her head and the water poured off.

This calf followed its parents and waded around in the lake to find breakfast. All meals are pretty much the same for a moose.

Wood duck drakes are so resplendent with their iridescent green and purple feathers that shimmer in the sunlight.