Summer is almost over. So I made a visit to Chatfield State Park to see what birds I could find. Typically, birds are a lot quieter during August — breeding season has also passed by. Also, some had already started their Fall Migration. We certainly got to see a lot more birds than last year. Maybe the hot weather contributed to this?
Walking along the South Platte River late in August, I spotted this Great Blue Heron high up in the tree, looking out towards the sunset.
As I left the river bank, to return to the trail, an Osprey was calling. This juvenile Osprey was perched on the top of a tree trunk adjacent to the trail. Young Osprey are typically dependent on their parents for food. This juvenile was pretty big, and maybe it had not learnt how the catch fish yet? Periodically this bird was calling out for attention, perhaps waiting for a parent?
A week or so later, the month of September had started. The Fall Migration had already started, and we heard that several species of shore birds were observed at the reservoir in Cherry Creek State Park. This last year was extremely hot and with drought conditions, so the water level at the reservoir was very low. Several American Avocets had stopped during their southward migration to forage along the shoreline.
This elegant bird still had some breeding plumage. Many of the other Avocet that I encountered were in non-breeding plumage; perhaps those others could have been juveniles?
This Avocet often dipped its head below the water to find some aquatic insects. In the image below, the bird lifted its head out of the water as it was moving along. The water formed what looks like a “windshield” ahead of the bird in its forward movement!
Several people had observed Phalaropes at Cherry Creek Reservoir earlier in the week. I was lucky enough to see a group of five or six Red-Necked Phalaropes foraging along the shoreline. This was the first time that I had seen Phalarope at Cherry Creek.
Phalaropes are really fun to watch. As they move in shallow waters, they swim and spin in circles on the water’s surface. We had observed this similar behavior when visiting Kansas in the Spring Migration last year. In the image below, this bird found some yummy insect.
As I moved along the shoreline, I managed to capture some of this group of Phalarope. The Mallard was also working in the vicinity of this group.
As I left the shoreline, I followed the path back towards the parking lot. Along the way, I encountered this bird foraging among the vegetation. We later identified this bird as a Yellow-Headed Blackbird. I had difficulty in capturing decent images of this bird. It was so close, that I could not focus on the bird! It walked right past me, a couple of feet away. It was closer than the the minimum focusing distance of my lens!
I was surprised that this blackbird made no effort to take flight at such close quarters!