Photographer in Colorado

A couple of weeks ago, we made a birding trip to Monte Vista to do some birding. At this time of the year, Sandhill Cranes stop over at the wildlife refuge on their return trip to summer nesting grounds. For the first morning, we were out at the ponds to view the cranes and geese fly out. Many birds typically roost at these ponds during the night. We found this pair of Canada Geese hanging out on the ice at the edge of the ponds. I managed to capture one bird flapping its wings.

American Coots may also be found in the ponds. Later in the morning, they may be found feeding in the ponds. Frequently, several coots spar with one another. This is a common sight that I have found at this location over several years. Here is one image from a sequence of images that I captured from one sparring pair.

During the course of the day, Sandhill Cranes fly over the wildlife refuge. Here is one image of a single goose in flight.

Sandhill cranes spend winter further south along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. During later winter and early spring, they head north to their summer feeding and nesting grounds. The wildlife refuge is one feeding location where they stop during their journey. Here is a single crane moving while grazing in the fields.

The cranes typically roost for the night where there is water, either at these ponds, or at other ponds in the refuge. This offers some safety against predators, such as coyotes, during the night. Soon after dawn, the cranes fly out in family groups to feeding grounds where they spend much of the daylight hours. Sandhill Cranes generally pair for life. Occasional single birds (with no partners) will also fly out. In this image, I captured a single bird when it called out soon after taking flight.

Early during the first morning, there was little wind. However, during the course of the day, strong winds developed during the day and persisted for the remaining two days that we spent in Monte Vista. Here is typical family group of a pair of cranes in flight that I capture during our first day, when the cranes were moving between feeding grounds in the refuge.

Here is another single crane in flight between feeding grounds on the first day.

During early March, the annual Sandhill Crane Festival takes place in Monte Vista. We typically visit the refuge either before or after the festival, to avoid the crowds and to find reasonable accommodation. We had really strong winds during the middle and end of the days we spent in Monte Vista. However, the weather forecast for the festival days included snow!

There is a Barrow’s Goldeneye that winters in the South Platte River every year. I don’t know whether this is the same duck that we have seen every year, or not. The male duck is very easy to identify, but the female is much more difficult. The female looks very similar to the female Common Goldeneye. Last week, I went on a quest to find the female(s).

After confirming that the Barrow’s is still here, I returned the next day in a quest to find the female. Of course, I found some other species. On arriving at the river, I found this pair of American Wigeons.

Soon, I found a group of female Goldeneye ducks. I worked my way downstream and upstream a few times, making several images along the way. In this image, I managed to capture a Common Goldeneye flapping her wings.

Now, were there any female Barrows? I found another female Goldeneye that started to flap her wings. Was it a Barrow’s? The bill has much more yellow than the common species. The head is a different shade of brown. This female had a different shape of head when compared to the common females; closer in shape to the male. Yes. Found the female Barrow’s Goldeneye!

Eventually the male Barrow’s Goldeneye, made his way upstream to the join the group of females. In this image, I managed to capture both male and female as they turned around and headed downstream.

Most of the Goldeneye ducks were swimming upstream and downstream, swimming and diving as they were foraging for food. They repeated this several times during my time observing them. In the following image, I captured the male with three females following behind; one Barrow’s female and two Common females. They soon passed the male Buffelhead (see below). The difference between the Barrow’s and Common can be seen here.

Occasionally, the ducks take flight to move upstream, instead of paddling against the water flow. I managed to capture this one female Common Goldeneye as she took flight.

There are several other specifies of birds in the South Platte river at this location. I found this solitary Canada Goose on a sandbar in the river.

As I was returning to the parking lot, a pair of Northern Flickers landed on a tree as I walked under the tree. I managed to get a very decent image of one of these Flickers.

Found the female Barrow’s Goldeneye. Mission accomplished!

One of the techniques for creating impressionist images with photography, is Intentional Camera Movement, or ICM. Here is a collection of some of the ICM images that I captured during daily walks through our neighborhood.

These images are made by moving the camera vertically, or horizontally, while make the exposure.

In the following image, the camera was moved diagonally.

The following images were made in Rosedale Park, before the last snow storm.

The most recent snow storm dumped much snow in Harvard Gulch. Here is one image that includes snow around the tree being captured.

I stopped by an area where there were several bushes growing close together along the gulch to capture this image.

In the following image, the bushes contained several curved branches. Since I moved the camera more slowly than the earlier images, these branches retained more of their curves.

Enjoy.

The morning of the third day, was the last opportunity to visit Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge before heading back home. Leaving the hotel, I headed to the north loop of the refuge. I did find a Northern Harrier but it was too far away and spent a lot on time on the ground in the distance.

However, as I continued along the road, I noticed a Red-Tailed Hawk in a tree across from the irrigation channel by the roadside. I just waited to see what would happen and made several of images, including the following one. Red-Tailed Hawks have a very distinctive call that I heard several times from this hawk.

Later on, while we were reviewing images at home, we noticed that there was a second Red-Tailed Hawk hidden behind the branches to the left of this hawk. I never noticed the second bird, and therefore did not attempt to capture an image with two hawks. C’est la vie!

There were several reports of a pair of White-Tailed Kites at Bosque Del Apache. Soon, rounding a bend, I noticed several folks who had stopped along the road. They had found one of the kites. So I got my gear out and captured several images. This kite was a fair distance away, and so it was small in the frame. What luck!

The previous day, I had met a lady who was asking about the kites. Soon she arrived, so I pointed the kite out to her. We chatted a while, and then I left the refuge to make my way home.

One of the most interesting birds to watch and to photograph, is the Northern Harrier. In the early morning on the second day, visiting Bosque Del Apache, I headed along the north loop road, where I have seen Harriers many times in the past. Here I found a flock of Lesser Goldfinches that were feed from the thistles. This little guy was hanging from one thistle to feed from seeds of the second thistle below.

I had met several people who had mentioned that there was a pair of White-Tailed Kites in the wildlife refuge. While driving on the loop, I met a couple of photogs who had seen and captured images of one of the kites earlier in the morning. While chatting about the kites, this White-Crowned Sparrow flew by and then perched on a branch in a nearby bush.

The kite was no where to be found. Later in the day, I circled back to the north loop. The open fields were a popular location to find raptors hunting. I found this Red-Tailed Hawk perched on a tree at the roadside. It must have seen some prey and took flight to the opposite roadside. A few seconds later, it had landed in the grass, found nothing and flew off to another tree. However, I did manage to capture a couple of images as this hawk took flight from the perch.

Later that afternoon, I found another Red-Tailed Hawk perched on a tree, also on the north loop.

Bosque Del Apache is a well-known winter location for Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. This year, I did not see many Snow Geese on the first day; they had found roosting and feeding grounds at Bernado, another location about 40 miles north of Bosque. However, on this second day, I did see a flock of Snow Geese fly in during the morning.

Later that afternoon, I found the flock in the refuge captured some images, including the one above and below. I have made several images in previous visits, and so I did not spend much time with this flock.

Back on the north loop, I found another Red-Tailed Hawk. I captured the following image as it took flight.

As I mentioned earlier, the Northern Harrier is an interesting bird to watch. Even more difficult to photograph successfully. This Harrier flies close to the ground looking for prey. They are highly maneuverable and will suddenly turn as something catches their attention. Very soon, their flight takes them a long way from the camera and one loses track of them! Soon they may return by a different path, maybe passing really close, so patience is good habit.

I had found a location where there were sparrows feeding among the low bushes. Pretty soon this Harrier was weaving between the trees hunting for prey. This is one image where the Harrier was close enough and not obscured by the tree branches.

Birds in flight are the most difficult to capture, so I am happy with the results. To my mind, the Northern Harrier is the most challenging to capture, so it will keep me engaged for a long time!

Earlier this month, I made a trip to Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for some birding and make photographs. This year it was windy, overcast and really cold when I arrived at the wildlife refuge. After a couple of days, the wind subsided but it remained cold for much of the days.

For the first time, I managed to get a decent image of an American Kestrel; the overcast weather softened the light so we can see a lot of detail in the shadows.

Near the entrance to the wildlife refuge, a Loggerhead Shrike was perched on a fence post.

Later that first day, I made this image of the shrike on a thistle. It may have been the same bird but was about a 1/4-mile away from the first image.

Alongside the south loop, I found a frozen pond where a group of Yellowlegs were waiting for the ice to thaw that morning. Later in the day, I returned to the same pond to find the ice had thawed. Several other birds had moved in during the day. While observing the birds, this male Buffelhead Duck spent much of the day, paddling downstream in the pond, feeding occasionally. Once he reached the end, he would fly to the other end of the pond, and repeat the process. I did manage to capture this one image as he was taking flight from the end of the pond.

There are several other animals that may be found in New Mexico. I found this Javelina crossing the road to join a group of Javelina grazing in the field to the left.

Towards the end of the day, a Roadrunner approached me. It seemed that this Roadrunner was working one stretch of road that runs between two ponds. This is one image that I captured close to sunset.

At the end of daylight, I headed out of the refuge for some dinner. The sun had set behind the mountains to the west of the refuge. However, the last rays for sunlight lit up the few remaining clouds in the sky.

More to come.

During our afternoon trip to Reynold’s Landing, we discovered a Lesser Scaup (a duck), that was diving for food in the river. I managed to get reasonably close to the Scaup as it dived below the surface. After watching the Scaup’s behavior, I decided to attempt a sequence of several consecutive images from the start of the dive until the the scaup was underwater. After many attempts, I eventually managed to capture a complete sequence from start.

Ten days ago we headed out to Reynold’s Landing, along the South Platte River. Soon after passing the pond, I heard a Belted Kingfisher calling. It turned out that this Kingfisher was fishing at the pond. Here is a sequence of three images as this Kingfisher was hunting for food.

Saw something…

And diving.

Whilst watching this Kingfisher, he caught four critters from the pond. Probably crawdads.

During November, I made several trips to the South Platte River and to Chatfield State Park, so that I can improve some bird photography. Here is a collection of some of the more interesting birds that I re-discovered.

These two Kildeer were chasing each other along the river. I was fortunate to capture the far one as it came to land.

On one day, I spent a couple of hours at Chatfield State Park. This White-Crowned Sparrow spent some 5-10 minutes in one bush, allowing me to capture lots of images. This one bird was the highlight of that visit to the park!

Back to the South Platte on another occasion. There are many Mallards in the South Platte River, year round, so I done often attempt to photograph them. However, sometimes I manage to capture an unusual display.

On that day, I also found a female and male Buffelhead duck.

I found a pair of Mallards feeding. This is the usual position as they dip down to bottom feed in the river. Well timed!

Continuing with my trip to Iceland… During the trip to make images of the wild seas along the east coast, I stopped by one of the inshore lakes that served as a habitat for some swans. During previous trips to Iceland, I attempted to make some images of swans in the wild. Unfortunately the Icelandic swans are very skittish, so as I approached them, they either moved further away or flew away. For the following images, the lakeside was very close to the car. I could make these images without leaving the car, after rolling down the window.

As I wrote previously, gale force winds were pumping in the south and east of Iceland. In the image below, the swans were struggling to make headway against the wind. Looking at the surface of the water, one can see the waves created by the strong winds.

After shooting the rough seas, I headed back to the hostel. These seven horses had lined up near the edge of the farmer’s field.

This was my last day in the hostel at Vagnasstaðir, and the following morning I had to complete a 600km trip to Dalvik, in the north of Iceland. I was up before dawn and headed out after a quick breakfast. As I was driving a few kilometers down the road, the sunrise had started with red, orange and coral colors in the morning sky. In the distance is the Vestrahorn, with a tidal lagoon in the foreground.

On the far side of Vestrahorn, one passes “The Red Chair” that is attached to a rock outcrop along the road side.

Eventually, I arrived at the hostel in Dalvik late in the day. The east coast of Iceland contains may fjords, so the roads usually follow the coastline that is absolutely spectacular. The final leg of the trip between Egilsstaðir and Akureyri was on snow-covered roads. This was the coldest part of the journey where the temperature dropped below freezing (6˚F or -14˚Celsius). I passed several cars that were abandoned on the roadside, because their drivers chose to leave the firm road surface; those cars had become bogged down in the softer road shoulders!

During my two days at Dalvik, I made some trips to some close-by towns. Returning from Husavik, I stopped along the road close to the following treeline.

Looking back along the road from Husavik, I noticed a rainbow over the road. The morning air was really cold and laden with water vapor, ice and water droplets. These was the source for the frozen rainbow!

Later that evening, I returned to the hostel at Dalvik. The sun was setting behind the mountains on the western side of Dalvik, creating the most amazing sunset.

That concludes the images from my Iceland trip.

Continuing with my trip to Iceland… While in Vik, I made an early morning visit to Skogafoss. It had been raining most of the way there, and it continued to rain after arriving. After waiting for the rain to clear, I decided to abandon this site. However, the next day was clear of rain, so I headed back to make a great image of the sunrise.

About the time there was a major weather change over Iceland. Along the south coast, gale force winds had developed. This caused many road closures, over a 3 or 4 day period, until the winds weakened. I managed to make the following image of the main water fall at Skogafoss. It was really windy here, even with a camera on a tripod. However, other photographers were not so lucky — I did see one tripod blown over, with the sound of breaking glass, probably causing a broken filter.

Returning to Vik, I had breakfast at the hostel. Several hostel visitors that I met had left early that morning so they could complete their journey in case they were delayed by road closures. Later I headed east and stopped at another waterfall, Stjornarfoss, that I had visited during a previous visit to Iceland. This waterfall faces south and is located in a short canyon. Even here, there were strong gusts of wind that blew from the north over the waterfall.

Returning to the car, I passed by the following curved treeline. The low autumn sun cast long shadows, even in the middle of the day.

Returning to Vik later that afternoon, the road leading west out of Vik was closed because of the high winds. There were many travelers in tour buses that had stopped at the main shopping center in Vik, taking a break before resuming their journey towards Reykjavik later that day.

The following day was my turn to move the the next hostel location at Vagnasstaðir, closer to Hðfn, along the southeast coast. I then proceeded to Vestrahorn, a location that I had missed during previous visits to Iceland. Many beaches in Iceland have black beaches, as a result of black sands originating from volcanic and igneous activity on the island. In this image, I found a location where the yellow grasses grew on the black sand dunes — this provided a nice contrast of the yellow against the black.

During my stay there, we had a snow storm during the first night. During the course of the next day, there was a rain/snow mix, that eventually melted by the end of the day. I did manage to get some clothes washed and shopped for some groceries.

The following day, the snow and rain had cleared, so I decided to head towards Jokulsarlon. This is a location when the Vatnajokull (glacier) calves into a lagoon. At low tide, icebergs are carried out to the sea. Later these icebergs are washed up onto the beach when the tide rises. This stretch of beach is often called “Diamond Beach”. Here I made several images of the icebergs as the rising sun shines through the ice.

Even though the snow and rain had stopped, the high winds continued to blow from the north. This gave me a great opportunity of capturing the rough seas as the waves rolled into the coast. The high winds created lots of spray from the surf allowing some backlit waves to be captured. Absolutely spectacular!

Later that day, I headed back towards Hðfn and past Vestrahorn, to the east coast. Along the route, I made images of the snow covered mountains.

There was very little snow along the east coast. However, I stopped at one location to make images of the breaking waves as the wind carried the spray aloft from the breaking surf. In the following image, I took shelter behind rocks below a low hill. Again, some really spectacular conditions.

After making images here, I decided to head further up the coast. I found a parking lot, located above the cliff top. At this location, the winds were even stronger. Also, I had no place where I could shelter, so I had to lean backwards against the wind when capturing images so I didn’t get blown over the cliff!!!

These proved to be another location with spectacular waves.

Continuing on my journeys through Iceland… On day 3, I made a brief stop to capture some of the wetlands close to Kirjufell.

Then I headed out beyond Kirkjufell, towards the Snaefellsnes peninsula. Here is the view of Snaefellsnes Jokull. This is the glacier above a dormant volcano.

As I approached a town, Rif, I noticed this waterfall that is fed from the snowmelt of the glacier.

After passing through Snaefellsnes National Park, I visited this abandoned farmhouse. This is a site that I have visited several times in the past — it becomes even more dilapidated and covered with more graffiti with each visit!

On the return trip to Grundarfjorður, I stopped at the beach near Latravik. The foreground shadow was slowly creeping along the berm as the sun dropped lower behind the mountains behind me.

It was close to low tide when I walked down the beach. The beach is formed from black volcanic sands that are the result of volcanic activity in Iceland over the millennia. This beach had several pools that I could use to include some reflections of the clouds.

In the following image, the edge of the pool had interesting patterns created by the ripples of the beach sand.

There is one feature close to this beach that I captured the day before — A Giant Padlock. This padlock is the main feature of the gate that leads to the berm that I captured.

However, there are several padlocks that adorn the gate, including one on the left side of the giant padlock!

In the final image, I captured the road and the berm framed by the hasp of the giant padlock.

This last October, I made another trip to Iceland. After arriving in Keflavik airport and renting a car, I headed to Reykjavik. My flight had arrived an hour earlier than scheduled. Having visited several times in the past, I knew my way around the city. I entered the center of the city by means of the road along the waterfront. It was sunrise by the time I reached the city. Along the waterfront is the “Sun Warrior” sculpture, that was lit by the sunrise. Fortunately there were no crowds in the area, so I was able to capture the following image.

After visiting Sun Warrior, I had some breakfast and then headed out to a fjord. This would give me the opportunity of taking a nap during the day to overcome jet lag and make some photographs.

“Hvalfjorður” is a fjord some 30 kms north of Reykjavik. The road around this fjord was part of the ring road until a tunnel was constructed to cross the fjord in the 1990’s. I always like to visit this fjord since it is a short drive from Reykjavik. A bit of history: during World War 2, this fjord was used as an allied naval base.

I made my way around the fjord. This is a really pretty drive with some great scenery. One of my favorite spots along the road is the “Laxa i Kjos” (salmon river). This river is a crossed by a single-lane bridge that passes small waterfalls as the river makes its way down to the fjord.

Later, I managed to get a nap and then returned to Reykjavik. I spent some time near the harbor, where I made this image of the Harpa Concert Hall.

This concert hall has glass windows that has colored panes in random locations. Here is one of the images that I made inside the hall, that shows some details of the windows.

The next morning, I headed to the next destination, again passing through Hvalfjorður. Here is another image that I made of the waterfall.

En route to Grundarfjorður, there were a couple of herds of Icelandic horses along the roadside.

I parked the car at a close by parking area and made my way towards the horses. There were two groups of horses; one on each side of the road. As I approached the fence, several horses made their way to greet me. I had the opportunity of capture several images of these wonderful horses.

After arriving in Grundarfjorður, and checking into the hostel, I headed to Kirkjufell that is located just outside the town. Here is one of the images that I made here.

More to come.

This week, I spent a couple of days in the Gunnison area to make some images of the Colorado Fall colors. After arriving at Taylor Reservoir, the aspen on the far bank had taken on their fall colors.

Above the dam wall, there is a rock wall and a line of aspen growing up the slope. In previous years, I never managed to get a decent image that shows the contrast between the gray cliff face and the yellow aspen.

After reaching Gunnison, I setup a tent at the campsite and then headed north into the Ohio Creek valley. In the Gunnison area, there are plenty of cottonwood, willows and other trees (apart from aspen) that typically have fabulous fall colors. This is one location that I often visit. This year I stopped along the roadside. After a few minutes, I noticed the following scene where the trees lined the creek. I had never captured images at this particular location. The angle of the sun created perfect backlight and shadows for this scene.

From this location, I headed further to the base of Ohio Pass. This location always has great fall colors. I this following image, I focused my attention on the red and gold colors of these trees.

The west side of the road always offers fabulous backlighting in the afternoon sun. I framed these small aspen trees between the two large aspen trunks.

There are also willow bushes that still had green summer colors that contrasted with the golden yellow aspens.

In the following scene, I looks like the sun is lighting the center of the trees, but casting a dark shadow around the rim of the trees.

Across the far side of the valley, a huge pine forest dominated the landscape. However, there was a gap that created a triangular sliver of light in the field.

From here, I made my way up Ohio Pass. As I rounded a bend, I came across the following scene where the low sunlight grazed the top of the trees. A few minutes later, the trees were in shadow.

At the top of the pass is another pine forest. This was the first time that I noticed the low sun picking out the red ground cover.

These two days were great for viewing the fall colors. Mid-week was great because of less traffic and fewer visitors than would be the case for weekends.

These ones almost got away! I prepared this selection of images in August, but never posted. We often visit Reynold’s Landing, along the South Platte River. I always check out the pond located to the one side of the river. This time, I found this Snowy Egret close to the edge of the pond. I liked his pose as it was looking for food.

These egret struck some interesting poses. Here is another one.

Close to a weir, we found this Night Heron. After several minutes, this heron got his leg up, so I managed to capture this image.

This cormorant spent a good half hour preening. Several times, the bird spread its wings. This was one image that I captured before the cormorant took flight.

We found a couple of Say’s Phoebe along the riverside. This bird is an immature, as witnessed by the fluffy feathers.

Here is another image of this bird.

The other Phoebe was buzzing around close by. Eventually, chasing this one away!

Yesterday afternoon, we headed down to Reynold’s Landing on the South Platte River, hoping to do some birding after watching the football game. It was pretty quiet along the river, with maybe 3 groups of people tubing down the river. We spotted the usual night herons and snowy egret. After most of the tubers had passed, we spotted a Great Blue Heron. I had been wanting to capture some different behavior of this fabulous bird. So I just waited to see what happened. The heron was perched or a log, gazing up an down the river.

All of a sudden, the heron appeared to take flight.

But it was just one big hop…

To the other end of the log!

And then landing.

To resume gazing downstream!

Even though we spent just over an hour at the river, we had fun watching just a few birds. The Great Blue made my day!

May was one of the rainiest months of the year, with huge storms over the Eastern Plains. Last Saturday, the sky was full of storm clouds, so I headed out to Bennett. I captured this image north of Bennett; this is close to the flight path out of the DIA airport. You may even spot an airplane in front of one huge clouds in this image.

Soon I headed east, so I could return to Bennett. Along the roadside, the strong winds kicked up a dust-storm on one of the plowed fields. This was spectacular against the dark clouds.

From here, I headed south, through Bennett and then to Kiowa. South of Kiowa, I found another huge storm cloud that stretched all the way from Colorado Springs to Bennett, against a deep blue sky.

This next image that showed the full height of the storm above me.

Soon it was time to turn back. Across the road where I had parked, was this half-dead tree in front of a roadside pond. This was lit up by the late afternoon sun, just before becoming obscured by clouds.

Fortunately, I was able to make this image, with the trees and fresh spring grasses, against a storm laden sky.

While out daughter Susan was visiting us, the two of us took a trip to the South Platte river to see what birds we could find. After finding a Night Heron, she became entranced by these birds fishing among the rocks. It turned out that there were 5 Black-Crowned Night Herons spread out across the width of the river! What luck. We spent most of the next hour watching these herons as the they were fishing.

These birds are really amazing to watch. Look as those bulging eyes that I managed to capture in the following image.

This was the heron closest to where were sitting close to the bank of the river. Soon the heron spread its wings an did some rock hopping to move to a new location.

Here the heron continued fishing. Success at last, as it caught something from the river! Susan saw several herons catching some prey. I only managed to get one decent image, with the heron swallowing prey.

After munching on the food, this heron did some rock hopping. I captured this heron in mid-stride.

Here is the next image in mid-stride.

Finally, this heron resumed fishing from the next rock!

We both enjoyed the time spent observing these herons as they went about hunting for fish and other critters swimming in the Platte River.

Last week, I headed out to Westerly Creek to checkout the latest arrivals. From the parking area, I headed down to the creek and across the bridge where Westerly Creek meets up with the Sand Creek. Here were the usual birds that I had been seeing during the last month, including Robins, Widgeons and Mallards. After I had turned back, two Snowy Egrets landed in the creek. I managed to make an image of one egret who was visible on the far bank.

After returning to the parking area, I headed to another location along Westerly Creek, where there is a pond alongside the creek. Having spotted an egret in the pond, I made my way down to the pond. When fishing (or hunting), Snowy Egrets typically stir up the floor of a pond, hoping to dislodge some live tasty food!

In the image above, the bubbles below the egret above, were caused by the egret when stirring up the floor of the pond. After finding a tasty morsel, this egret soon decided to investigate the cattails along the far bank of the pond.

After a while, this egret returned towards the center of the pond.

I soon learned that there was a second egret located on my side of the pond. The second egret was obscured by the cattails in front of me.

Here is another image of the same egret. Snowy Egrets can easily be identified — they have yellow feet or “yellow slippers”.

This afternoon we headed out to the South Platte River. After walking south from the parking lot we heard many birds, but they proved difficult to find. We head back, and then continued north. What luck, we found a Snowy Egret at the weir.

Yes, the Egrets are back for the season.

Earlier this month, we took a birding trip to Monte Vista. Every year, at this time of year, Sandhill Cranes make their way north to their summer breeding areas. Monte Vista is one location where thousands of cranes stop over during their flight from New Mexico.

The city also hosts an annual Crane Festival. This year we decided to visit before the festival started. It was the 40th anniversary of the festival, so we chose to avoid the expected crowds.

For our first morning, we headed out to the National Wildlife Refuge at dawn, well before sunrise.

The cranes spend the night in the the ponds, where they are safe from any predators. Hundreds of Canada Geese also spend the night in the same ponds. About the time of sunrise, the take flight, either singly or in family groups, to daily feeding grounds. I managed to capture some of these magnificent birds in flight.

In the following image, the single crane took flight. In the background there are five cranes — all out of focus. I like the contrast of the four out-of-focus birds with the wings swept up above the single bird, contrasting with the wings swept down of the out-of-focus single bird.

Around the edges of the ponds are plenty of cattails. Hundreds of Red-Winged Blackbirds also spent the night in these cattails. There was an amazing cacophony of sound as the birds were chattering and calling from the cattails.

Typically, there are male blackbirds that have migrated to the ponds, while they await female birds to arrive. I did manage to find one female Red-Winged Blackbird, perched on a cattail.

This year we were lucky in finding a male Great-Horned owl during the late afternoon. They are really difficult to see clearly because they often perch close to the main tree trunk and are often tucked between other branches. Luckily, this owl was perched in a tree close to the road. They may also roost in trees far from the roads during the day. They are so well camouflaged that they become invisible.

During the other mornings, we headed out well before sunrise. Here are some more images of family groups of Sandhill Cranes leaving the ponds.

And here is a family threesome taking flight against the dawn sky.

We spent three nights and four days in Monte vista. However, for days two and three, there were strong cold winds blowing across the San Luis Valley, often kicking up dust from the dirt roads and ploughed fields. Regardless, we still enjoyed birding for all four days.

Winter is always a good time to view ducks and other waterbirds along the South Platte River. Now for something a little different. Mallards and Canada Geese are really plentiful species along the river. As a result, I don’t usually make photographs of these birds. However, this month I did find one female Mallard that was preening herself and flapping her wings at the riverside. I could not resist making some images of this one individual duck.

Those blue tail feathers are really striking in the above image. Here is another image with swept back wings.

Here is another image that shows equally spectacular wing detail of this magnificent bird.

On another morning, I found this Canada Goose that was flapping its wings while standing in the water. This might prove interesting. There were several geese in the area, so I may get lucky to catch some geese in flight.

Sure enough, the flock of geese took flight. I managed to capture a whole sequence of images. Here is the leading pair of geese taking flight.

I continued tracking the geese, with this one being the last in the sequence.

Later that morning, I was watching a male Buffelhead duck in the river, when he suddenly decided to take flight. These are small ducks, so the move very fast. Here is an image soon after he leaves the water, paddling with his feet.

A few moments later, he had successful taken flight. Here is one image as he was fully out of the water.

It is always a challenge to capture images of birds in flight. So I was happy with these few images from this month.

At this time of year, I usually take a walk through the neighborhood, usually in the evening after work, and sometimes at the weekend. Last weekend I chose a different route, where a bridge crosses one of the local “ditches”. Close by, there are several large sumac bushes that we covered with bright red berries.

Crossing the bridge, there is a collection of love locks attached to the bridge. That red lock just grabbed my attention, so I made this image of a cluster of three locks.

The route continued through the hospital and then to Harvard Gulch Park. Sometimes, I head down to the stream that flows though the gulch. Here that are some interesting rocks that have pink and gray coloring.

The edges of the gulch are covered with long grasses that reach down to the water’s edge. During the winter, these grasses, turn pale yellow and make a great monochromatic image.

The park is separated from a golf course by this long fence. Looking up the fence, there was a hint of blue sky behind mostly overcast skies. Another candidate for a black and white image.

Reaching the top of the fence, I decided to shoot another image as the fence curved to the right.

From here, I headed across the park. Close the the far edge, was a huge patch of snow and ice, that had been melting during the course for the day, forming a pool of water and ice. Gaps in the ice, where water had melted, allowed nearby trees to be reflected in the pool.

Sometimes I take a detour through one of the alleys. In one of these alleys is this colorful scarecrow.

It was close the sunset, so that was the last image of the day.

This winter, we have had several snow storms in the Denver area, with the mountains receiving even more storms. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to head into the mountains, near South Park, where I hoped to experience some storm action! Heading out on highway 285, as I approached Bailey, the storm was dumping snow on the mountains south of the town. I left the highway to find a location above the town that offered a clear view to the south. The soft filtered sun lit up some snow clouds in the valleys to the south.

Rejoining the highway, I headed up Kenosha Pass and on towards to South Park. At Como, I left the highway to join the dirt road that leads to Boreas Pass. At this point, there was some clearing of the clouds that allowed the blue sky to peek through. Stopping there, I made the following image.

For grins, I decided to head towards Boreas Pass for some more exploration. At the base of the pass, the road was closed for the season — typically this would be from November through to May. Boreas Pass was once the route of the narrow gauge railroad that connected the mountain mining town of Breckenridge to Como. Stopping at the roadside, I made this image. The falling snow progressive reduces visibility into the distance. This results in a nice layering of the mountain ridges receding into the distance.

Heading back, I rejoined highway 285 and headed south. There are large areas of South Park that did not have snow covering the ground. The mountain grasslands had turned into a pale yellow, as in this image. It was great to see the contrast between the yellows and blues whenever a patch of blue sky opened up in the clouds overhead.

Looking back towards the west, a snow storm was raging near Weston Pass.

Soon it was time to head back. I made my way towards Hartsel and Fairplay. Along the road was a sign to Tomahawk State Wildlife Area, that is located on a ridge above the park. This needed some more exploration, so I headed up the dirt road. By this time the sun was getting low, close to sunset. From this location, I could make out the Collegiate Peaks in the far distance. A the sun dropped lower in the sky, the clouds started turning yellow from the setting sun.

A few minutes later I started to head back. From this point, I was driving in light to heavy snow for most of the journey home.

Continuing with my visit, I made this image near the Hemingway parking lot. This area appeared to be popular with rock climbers — they were busy climbing the granite rocks that are on the left side of the image. I like this image as a black and white monochrome image because of the long shadows of the late afternoon.

Earlier that same morning, I found this bouquet of flowers that were growing from a fracture in the shaded side of a granite boulder pile near Quail Springs.

While visiting the Cholla Garden, I made several images of the Teddy Bear Cholla. Could not resist those spiny needles backlit by the afternoon sun.

The old parts of the cholla plant have turned a dark-brown color. Hidden in the shaded, dark side, of the plant, were some bright spiny needles. These were complimented by the colorful remains of the flowers and cholla fruit.

About half an hour before sunset, I found a location where there was a Yukka plant and Joshua tree casting very long shadows on the ground. The sun was about to star setting behind the hills to the left, so I hurriedly setup my camera. I made this image about five minutes before the sun disappeared behind the hills. By the time I had reached the truck, about 100 yards away, this area was in shade.

The following morning, I made my way to Quail Springs, heading towards a valley where Joshua Trees stretched out into the distance. This was one image looking back towards the path that I took.

I stopped by another Cholla bush that was catching the light of the sunrise.

Most of this area of the park had lots of live Joshua Trees. However, I did find this dead tree in the shadow of a slight ridge in the ground.

After returning to the truck, it was time to leave for Oxnard, where I had another visit scheduled for the afternoon lunch break!

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped at Joshua Tree National Park while on a road trip to California. It was late in the day when I arrived at Yukka Valley, so by the time I headed into the park, the sun had already set. The next morning I headed to the park, arriving just as the sun was rising above the granite hills. I made my way along a trail where I found this yukka plant, adorned with a long stem that flowered in some earlier season.

The park is named after the Joshua Tree. Here is one of the first images that I made of a Joshua Tree that morning.

I found a pair of Joshua Trees. In this image, the sun was low in the sky. Moving around, I made sure that the sun was located behind the trunk of the tree and created a silhouette of the two trees.

The higher elevations of the park are formed over granite intrusions. I found this granite boulder lit by the morning sun against a wall of granite that had vertical fractures resulting from erosion over the ages.

This was my second season visiting the park, so I headed down a track that led to Wall Street Mill. While exploring the area, I had a familiar tapping sound. Soon I discovered this Ladderback Woodpecker feeding on bugs in a Joshua Tree. The woodpecker was working up through the tree, allowing me to approach closely. Soon the bird reached the tree top, where it perched awhile before finding another tree.

At a lower elevation of the park, which is much warmer that the higher Mohave Desert area, is the Cholla Cactus Garden. On this visit, I reached the garden in the afternoon, when the sun was low in the sky. The Teddy Bear Cholla look like a forest of cactii! I like how the low sun lights the cholla spines in this image.

I made another closeup image of one of the cholla plants.

I had decided to leave the macro lens at home for this trip. However, I did bring a Lensbaby lens that allows a softfocus image to be created. It also had a limited macro capability. I used this to get close to a shaded area of one the cholla, where the remains of the flowers and fruit were located.

Teddy Bear Cholla have nasty spines. Occasionally, a ball of spines fall from the cholla, and roll around the ground. One got attached to my boot so I had to work it off without touching the spines. They can be very painful! In this image below, I decided to focus on the distant cholla heads, leaving the closer cholla soft and fuzzy.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, I headed to a location where a roadside Joshua Tree cast long shadows on the tarmac road. This road was especially busy at that time of the day, so I made several images. This was one of the images made in between the passage of vehicles along the road.

I did manage to capture some with cars passing, but those were deleted!

Here are some of my favorite images for November. Arriving at First First Art Walk, I passed by an alley where there was some new paintwork! These are some murals from the alley.

This is the second one in the pair.

The roll-up door, maybe a garage door, was recently replaced. This mural lost its body!

During one of my evening walks through the neighborhood, I pass by a parking garage. The low sun lit up the floor with warm evening light in between the shadows caused by the pillars.

This month was a quiet time for the birds along the South Platte. A lot of summer migrants had already moved away, and the winter visitors had not yet arrived in numbers. However, I did find this female Gadwall, and was happy to capture an image of her spreading her wings.

Later in the month, the Mergansers arrived. This male Hooded Meganser was enjoying the setting sun lying on a boulder in the middle of the river.

Enjoy.

Mount Elbert is a great location to visit for fall colors. The forest road starts close to a pine forest and then passes up through an aspen forest at a higher elevation.

The previous night it had snowed on the mountain peaks, with rain showers at lower elevations. I chose to capture the aspen tree tops against the background pine and aspen forests. There is a light covering of snow at the top of this image.

In the depths of the forest, one often finds odd boulders under the trees. There was an occasional breeze that afternoon. There were also large cloud banks that moved through the sky. There was a thin long blade of grass that was moving in the breezed. I waited patiently for a cloud bank to provide overcast lighting. When the breeze to paused, I managed to capture this image.

Close to this location on the forest road is a beaver pond that I frequently visit. During the fall, the pond reveals abstract patterns as the colors are reflected in the water.

Once the leaves drop, they become a carpet of yellow. Looking straight down, I captured an image showing some of the leaves. Soon the leaves turn brown and start to decay, so I included them in this image.

Looking towards the base of Mount Elbert, I was fascinated by the layering of the colors in the forest. In this image, there are alternating bands of color from the pine and aspen forests.

After returning home via Buena Vista, I took another forest round that passes several ponds. More reflections as the reeds and grasses at the edge of the pond were reflected in the water. I also included some of the reflections in the pond from more distant aspen trees.

In this final image, I included more detail of the grasses and bushes across the other side of the pond. I like the way that the grasses are mirrored in the water.

All for now.

This year, I made a few trips to the mountains to capture some of the fall colors. While camping, I made a trip to Ohio Pass, where I found these grove of aspen trees, with a mix of green and yellow leaves, growing on the scree slope.

Early the next morning, I headed to Mill Castle about sunrise. Last year, I discovered a great location at Mill Castle during the late afternoon drive. So this year, I made a repeat visit in the morning.

The trees were full of birds, and many chipmunks were running along the fencing and up the trees. I did not have a long lens, so no attempt for any bird photography.

Walking along the forest road, I found this location where the road disappeared into a tunnel formed by the trees.

Later in the day, I headed to Kebler Pass. Aspen forests often have ferns growing below the trees. I have never made any decent images in previous years, but managed to get a couple of images during this trip.

The ferns turn from green to yellow to brown. This year, I was a little early, so the ferns were a pale yellow. After a week or two, the ferns turn a brown color.

That was a great trip, until I got a punctured tire later in the afternoon. After mounting the spare, I headed back to the campsite and dinner. It turned out that the tire was totally written off!

A couple of years ago, I entered some images into the Lenswork publication for the “Seeing In Sixes” book. These images were made at the bridge where I-25 crosses the South Platte River. This is a great location to shoot, especially late on a sunny day. The sunlight is reflected from the river to the underside of the bridge, creating some great patterned patches on the bridge structure. Also, the ripples on the surface of the river create some interesting patterns when lit by the low sun.

These images did not get published. More importantly, I enjoyed the time photographing at this location and taking the time to process for consideration.

The last weekend, a cold front arrived, giving us a break from the hot weather. After completing chores around the yard, I headed down to the Platte River, at Reynold’s Landing. Overcast skies provided some great lighting and maybe there would be some interesting birds along the river. Soon after arriving, I found this Cormorant diving for fish.

I don’t know whether the bird found any fish, and soon took flight. On second thoughts, maybe my presence disturbed its fishing routine.

Upstream, I noticed a Great Blue Heron wading along the far bank. The heron did not stay for long; probably disturbed by some visitors with their dog closer to the its location.

Walking along the river bank, several House Wrens were rummaging through the bushes and calling. I made my way towards their sounds. Here I found 3 immature wrens. Also, there was an adult close by, maybe a parent, that I captured in this image.

In the bushes, and along the river banks, there were plenty of birds singing and calling out across both river banks. However, most of the birds were hidden from view.

On a day off from work, I headed to the “Lair Of The Bear” open space park during the late afternoon. I heard many birds calling from bushes and trees around the park. The birds were difficult to see, being hidden by the fresh leaves of spring. After meandering along the trails for a couple of hours, I stopped close to Bear Creak, that runs through the park. Just as I was about to move on, I noticed these three little American Dippers on the rocks along the creek.

These juvenile birds were just a few weeks old. Moving along the creek, I found a better location to make some more images. American Dippers frequent the rivers and creeks where the live, feed and breed. One of the dippers moved to another rock, leaving these two.

Soon, another one moved on, leaving this little guy on the rock.

Adult birds have a very distinctive behavior; they bob periodically as they work along the creek. These little juveniles must have practicing this behavior, because they were bobbing almost continuously! Still images do not show this behavior, so I captured a few video clips that show these cute little birds. Here is a short 50 sec video that I created.

Enjoy!

The month of May had some really interesting events. One of my favorite bands, Nightwish, performed in Denver as part of their North American tour. While waiting for the show to start, I noticed several shadows of audience members cast by the stage lighting.

The show started with an explosion of light.

I made couple of images of Nightwish during the evening. Here is Floor Jansen letting loose with her fabulous vocals.

This May, we also had a late snow storm. During my evening walk, I found these garden flowers weighed down by the heavy wet snow.

In the park, close to our home, the basketball court was wet, but too warm to accumulate a layer of show. The grass in the background had managed to retain some snow after a whole day of snow.

The heavy wet snow caused a lot of damage in the metro area with broken tree limbs. The arborists had a really busy week cleaning up the mess. We had one broken tree branch that we cleaned up in a couple of hours.

Finally, for Memorial Day, we visited a friend. While chatting after our meal, I noticed the aspen leaves pressed against the frosted glass wall of her patio. So I made several images that hinted at the shape of the leaves.

What an interesting month!

Last week, I made another trip to Westerly Creek. During the previous visit, it was really windy, so a lot of birds had hunkered down for the day. When I got to the junction with the Sand Creek, I did not see many birds, so I made this image of the reeds along the Sand Creek.

After a few minutes, I noticed an egret appear from behind a curve in the creek, so I approached the spot via another trail. No egret — another couple, with their dog, had approached the creek on the opposite bank and had disturbed the bird, so it flew off.. So I turned back. The egret had left and flew downstream. Soon I noticed the Snowy Egret had moved to the rocks above the waterfall. What fabulous lacy plumes on the birds head and tail!

There was a commotion taking place between a couple of Night Herons; but I failed to get any decent images. By this time the egret had moved to another location to resume hunting for food.

I made several images at this location, including this one with the egret’s reflection in the water.

There were three Night Herons close to this location. Here is one heron at the water’s edge, waiting for an opportunity to catch a fish.

Here is the second Night Heron further upstream on the rocks.

The Snowy Egret also moved near to the heron. The Snowy Egret can be identified from other egrets by the yellow slippers (it’s feet) which are really distinctive in this image.

After leaving the area of the creek, I encountered a Western Kingbird. When I arrived at Westerly Creek, this kingbird flew off soon after parking the truck. When returning to the truck, I made this image as it was perched on a street sign.

The trip to this location ended up be a fun experience.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, Angela decided that we should go to Reynold’s Landing to do some late afternoon birding along the South Platte River. Leaving the parking lot for the river walk, we encountered an American Robin, calling from the trail-side.

We continued our way south along the woodland trail. We could hear the calls of many birds, but could not see them. While stopping along the trail, I heard some rustling in the undergrowth. There was some movement and a little face appeared. Looking through the camera lens, I found this rabbit munching some grass.

Soon it was time to turn back, but by a different trail. Angela spotted this pair of Mallard’s perched on the tree stump belonging to a fallen tree.

While walking along the riverside, I noticed two pairs of Wood Ducks paddling across the river. We made our way downstream until we reached one pair. These ducks are extremely timid, so we were lucky to see two pairs!

This pair chose to stay close to the far bank, reasonably close to us; the second pair continued to swim away downstream. The male duck has really distinctive markings with a long crest on the back of his head. The female would be really well camouflaged and has a really distinctive eye-ring or eye-patch.

Heading back towards the parking lot, we encountered this pair of Northern Flickers near the top of a tree that was just starting to bud.

Adjacent to the parking lot, another male Flicker was calling from a tree branch.

Located close to the parking lot is a pool where I had spotted a Great Blue Heron during a bike ride a week or so prior. We headed towards the pond. In the distance, we could see the Heron, stationery at the side of the pond. I made my way closer to the bird, making sure that I did not disturb the heron. So I chose to shoot through the bushes along the shore.

I continued to watch and wait. Soon, the heron started stalking some prey in the water.

Caught it. The heron caught a sizeable fish, maybe some 8 inches in length.

The heron proceeded to swallow the fish. Soon here turned around and resumed the waiting game.

Was that the last meal of the day?

There was a group of four Lesser Yellowlegs wading and feeding in the creek. In this image, an occasional gust of wind did manage to ruffle some feathers in this bird.

While I was on the bridge overlooking the creek, the birds approached closer. Good news.

I made several images from the bridge. Later, crossing the bridge, I made my way to the far bank and approached the riverside. After waiting for several minutes, a pair of Yellowlegs made their way closer.

This was a much better location, because reflections from the vegetation along the river bank created nice background for the images.

In this image, one bird had his bill opened as it approached me.

It was really great to see the birds on a really windy day.