This last couple of weeks have seen the fall colors work down into the city. Whilst doing daily walks, I passed by some Sumac bushes that had started to turn. One bush had several flowers that had turned into a red fruit earlier during the summer. I found this Sumac fruit that was surrounded with a ring of green leaves.
Sumac With Fruit, Fall Colors, No 1.
Sumac typically turn from green to yellow then orange. Finally, when the leaves turn red, they are spectacular. In the image below, the fruit has a backdrop of bright red leaves.
Sumac With Fruit, Fall Colors, No 2.
There are several species of Sumac. The one that I had found was the Smooth Sumac. In the following image, I concentrated on the leaves.
Smooth Sumac, Fall Leaves, No 1.
I found another Sumac bush that had a branch with red leaves which was flanked by another branch with green leaves.
Smooth Sumac, Fall Leaves, No 2.
Often during walks, I cross Harvard Gulch where there is a spillway. Here I found some leaves with their fall colors that had fallen into the gulch. They were then trapped under running water that was flowing over the spillway.
Fall Color Leaves Under Water In Spillway.
During another daily walk, I found a Sumac branch where the leaves had turned to a striking orange color. Here I found an dark background that contrasted with the orange leaves.
Smooth Sumac Leaves, In Orange.
Close by, was another Sumac bush that had started to turn from green to yellow. Sun light streamed through a gap in the tree canopy to highlight the leaves in this image.
Smooth Sumac, Yellow-Green.
Finally, crossing to Rosedale Park, I found several trees that were in the process of turning colors.
Multicolor Fall Leaves, Rosedale Park.
In the image above, one can see all the colors from green, through yellow, orange and red. These leaves were shiny, so I made sure to include the light shiny surfaces that reflected the sky light on the leaves.
Earlier this week, I made another trip to view the fall colors. This started with a stop at Trout Creek, along the roadside leading in to Buena Vista. I frequently stop here to take a break and spend some time by the creek. This area contains some cottonwood trees that grow along the creek.
Backlit Cottonwood Saplings, Trout Creek.
The creek has slow flowing water with watercress growing along the banks and underwater. I found one spot where the creek split forming an island, as it meandered in an S-curve.
Trout Creek Lined With Watercress, Buena Vista.
In the shade of some bushes and trees, I found watercress growing underwater in the creek. The overhead sun lit up the creek bed, revealing abstract shapes of the green watercress below the surface.
Underwater Watercress, Trout Creek.
There was a magnificent cottonwood tree that was turning from green to yellow. In this image, I moved to create a backlit image. I chose a small aperture so that the sun was rendered as a sunstar in the final image.
Sunstar Through Cottonwood Tree, Trout Creek.
After stopping in Buena Vista for a coffee and muffin, I headed over Cottonwood Pass, reaching Taylor Reservoir. The west side of reservoir borders a steep slope that has several aspen and pine trees. In this image, I was interested in making a image that included reflections of the trees in the water. There was also a light rain shower that created some texture from the falling raindrops.
Fall Color Reflections, Taylor Reservoir.
The image below was made near the reservoir’s dam wall. Here some of the lip of the dam and the rocky cliff face was reflected in the water. Also, pine and aspen trees that grew on the steep slope were also reflected by the water.
Dam Wall And Fall Color Reflections, Taylor Reservoir.
I chose to return to the Ohio Creek valley again. At the roadside were three aspen trees growing in a row. Each tree had different colors of leaves; yellow at the back, then red in the middle, and green in the foreground. Of course, I had to stop for this one. Also, some of the leaves are past their peak color and have turned brown. So four colors in all!
Four Color Aspen Trees, Ohio Creek Valley.
At the base of Ohio Pass, is an aspen forest. The aspen trees at the edge of the sage brush in the foreground created an array of trunks that appears like a fan.
Aspen Forest And Array Of Aspen Trees, Ohio Pass.
To my left, across from a field where cattle were grazing, there were aspen trees in yellow fall colors, behind the fence line. I took care to include the fallen dead aspen tree trunks and some pine trees behind that little tree at left; this contrasts with the young aspens in full bloom.
Aspen Trees Behind Fence, Ohio Creek.
Finally, I stopped along the pass, where ferns were growing at the base of the forest. Here, I setup tripod and made several exposures of different fern plants. Here I used focus stacking to increase the depth of field with ferns that were really close to the camera.
Fern No 1, Ohio Pass.
I searched around for another fern plant, for one that had caught two aspen leaves that had fallen from the trees above.
Fern No 2, Ohio Pass.
After this, I made my way over the pass and made a return trip home.
Returning home, I made my way back via the Ohio Creek road and headed up Ohio Pass. On the cliff face, the afternoon sun caught these aspen trees on the edges of the scree slope.
Cliff Face With Pine And Aspen, Ohio Pass, No 2.
In the following image, I chose a composition where the line of aspen trees climbed up one side of the cliff face, over the top, and then continued down the other side. Almost like an inverted V-shape.
Cliff Face With Pine And Aspen, Ohio Pass.
I spent time making some images of ferns that grow at the base of most of the aspen forests. I have never been very successful with capturing these ferns. Add to self: maybe next time?
Ferns In Aspen Forest, Ohio Pass.
During the course of the afternoon, the storm clouds over Castle Mountain grew in intensity. The color image does not do justice to this big storm, so I converted to a monochrome black and white image. This shows the contrast of the mountain cliffs, dark skies and low clouds.
Castle Mountain Below Big Storm Clouds.
After reaching the top of Ohio Pass, it is a short distance to Kebler Pass. I made my way down to the base of the pass, near Horse Ranch Park, to make this image. I like the way that the mountain meadow forms an S-curve as it winds up through the forest.
Aspen And Pine Forests, Kebler Pass.
When the aspen leaves change colors in the fall, the edges of the green leaves are lined with yellow. Over time, this yellow lining then spreads inwards until the green is replaced. I managed to find one tree close to the roadside that showed this progression of color change, below.
Green Aspen Leaves Lined With Yellow, Kebler Pass.
The aspen tree trunks have some interesting bark patterns. The following pattern looks like a helmet. Did Darth Vader visit the aspen forests?
Was Darth Vader Here? Kebler Pass.
Finally, along came a spider!
Along Came A Spider, Kebler Pass.
After making these images, I headed home through Crested Butte, Cottonwood Pass and Buena Vista.
Continuing up Ohio Pass, I made the following image of backlit aspen trees with low clouds that were hanging in the valley below.
Backlit Aspen Trunks Against Low Cloud, Ohio Pass.
Ohio Creek receives some of its water from a waterfall that cascades down some steep cliffs.
Waterfall Above Aspen Forest, Ohio Pass.
There as several rock scree slopes that border the aspen forests. These slopes are created by alternate thawing and freezing of steep rock faces.
Aspen Forest Above Scree Slope, Ohio Pass.
Castle Mountain is located in the West Elk Wilderness that borders close to Ohio Pass. During the course of the day that I spent on the pass, Castle Mountain was obscured several times by storm clouds. Occasionally the storms cleared, allowing me to capture an image of the mountain and surrounding forests.
Castle Mountain And Storm Clouds.
Later in the day, I made another stop in Gunnison and headed back towards Ohio Creek. Along the way, I stopped at Carbon Creek, a location that I discovered one summer, maybe 3 years ago. There are several beaver ponds in this creek that slow the flow of water downstream. During the fall, this allows one to capture reflections of the fall colors in the water.
Fall Color Reflections In Carbon Creek.
I made my way back up Ohio Pass, stopping at the base of the pass to capture the following green, yellow, orange and red colors of the quaking aspen trees.
Aspen Trees Along Roadside At Base Of Ohio Pass.
Of course, I could not ignore capturing those red aspen leaves, in the following image.
Those Red Aspen Leaves, Ohio Pass.
After leaving Gunnison, I stopped to make another image of the storm clouds over Gunnison Basin.
Storm Clouds Over Gunnison Basin.
In the above image, I converted the image to monochrome black and white. This allowed me to emphasize the bright triangular cloud over the mountain.
Last week was a great time to experience the fall colors in Colorado. I made a trip to Gunnison to view the fall colors in the Crested Butte and Gunnison area. The weather that day was a mixture of overcast clouds, sun and rain. Colors of the leaves varied between green, yellow, orange and red. The Gunnison Basin has plenty of Cottonwood trees that are as spectacular as the Aspen trees that are found at higher elevations. It was still very early to experience the colors of the Cottonwoods. I arrived in Gunnison during mid-afternoon and made the following image.
Cottonwood Trees With Fall Colors, Ohio Creek Valley.
After setting up the tent in the campsite, I made my way on the road that followed the course of Ohio Creek. At one spot, I spotted these Aspen trees with the full range of fall colors.
Aspen With Fall Colors Along Roadside, Ohio Creek Valley.
Close to where I had parked, were these red aspen leaves that contrasted with the green leaves in the background.
Red And Green Aspen Fall Leaves.
That night it rained. The following morning the Gunnison basin had spectacular low clouds. As I headed back towards Ohio Creek, I made this image as the sun was rising.
Low Cloud Over Gunnison Basin At Sunrise.
Many of the farms in the basin grow cattle feed. I made this image of one of the fields lit by the low sun.
Farm Fields After Sunrise, Gunnison Basin.
There was a fire burning close by, maybe from a BBQ smoker. Smoke rising from this fire was backlit by the rising sun.
Smoke After Sunrise, Gunnison Basin.
Later, when I got to Ohio Pass, there were low clouds over the Aspen forests. I waited for a gap in the clouds that lit up the trees in the following image.
Aspen And Low Cloud Over Ohio Pass.
Here are some of the low clouds passing up the slopes.
Low Cloud Over Ohio Pass.
I spent many hours the same day making images along the pass. More to come.
A couple of weekends ago, I headed out to Westerly Park, to see what birds I could find after a break from that location of some 4 months. Soon after arriving, I found several Western Kingbirds. Many of these were immature or juvenile birds that had been busy hunting bugs. There were about 2 or 3 birds perched in one of the trees close to the trail.
Perched Immature Western Kingbird, No 1, Westerly Creek.
Kingbirds are flycatchers, so they perch on branches until bugs and insects fly past. Periodically they take flight to catch some insects, so I decided to wait and see.
Perched Immature Western Kingbird, No 2, Westerly Creek.
This bird made several flights to catch insects. Maybe I would be lucky to capture some of the in-flight action?
Perched Immature Western Kingbird, No 3, Westerly Creek.
After several attempts, I managed to capture a flight sequence. First, as the bird took flight, below.
Immature Western Kingbird, Taking Flight, Westerly Creek.
Once in flight, flycatchers have very erratic flight patterns as they attempt to capture insects.
Immature Western Kingbird, In Flight, Westerly Creek.
It proved to be difficult to capture a flight sequence, because flycatchers have extremely erratic flight patterns. However, I did manage to get a few shots.
Immature Western Kingbird, Catching Bugs, Westerly Creek.
Altogether, there must have been at least a dozen Kingbirds along the creek. After a few more attempts with these 2 or 3 Kingbirds, I decided to make my way to another part of Westerly Creek. Here I found a few Snowy Egrets that were wading along the shore. I had been watching this Egret, when it turned and started to walk in my direction. It had spotted a Crawdad at the edge of the reeds.
Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, No 1, Found Ya.
And then caught the creature.
Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, No 2, Caught Ya.
I captured several images as the Egret was meandering around the shore with its catch.
Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, No 3.
After manipulating the Crawdad in its bill, the Egret walked along the shore to my right.
Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, No 4.
Maybe I could capture the Egret swallowing the Crawdad?
Snowy Egret Catching Crawdad, No 5.
No luck. There were more bushes and reeds at the side that obscured the Egret from me. No worries, I had a great afternoon seeing some different kind of bird behavior at Westerly Creek.
This year we were fortunate to observe several “small” birds with parents. So I decided to include some of the images that were captured.
We were walking along a trail adjacent to the South Platte River at Chatfield State Park. In the distance, I noticed a Female Common Merganser swimming downstream, accompanied by a little bird. The Merganser swam downstream and was hidden for a short while. By the time she got close to me, the baby Merganser had got onto her back. The river was quite busy, with several paddle boarders working their way upstream. Maybe that was the reason that the baby had hitched a ride?
Female Common Merganser Carrying Baby On Back.
A few days later, we visited the same location. This time, we found another Female Common Merganser with two babies on the far bank of the South Platte River. All three were swimming upstream, pausing to feed along the way. In this image, the two babies had their heads underwater while their mother was watching out.
Female Common Merganser, With Two Babies, Chatfield.
Earlier in the year, before nesting season, I noticed several Wood Ducks in the same location. They had obviously paired up for breeding since then. On this day, one of the female ducks was swimming along the far bank with young birds in tow. There were at least four young Wood Ducks; there may have been more young Mergansers, since they often left the water and were weaving through the undergrowth on the far bank, returning to the water periodically.
Female Wood Duck, With Young, Chatfield.
The female Wood Duck made way downstream and crossed to our side of the river. I captured this image of her swimming with two of the young in tow.
Female Wood Duck, Leading Young Across River, Chatfield.
That was a good day, to see both Mergansers and Wood Ducks, both with young.
More recently, we headed down to Chatfield, searching for a woodpecker without success. Returning back past one of the lakes. Here there were plenty of Cormorants and some Mergansers. There was actually one female Common Mergansers with three of her young offspring.
Female Common Merganser, With Young, Chatfield.
I was watching this family group, when they all took off, running at speed on the water with their flippers. They were rushing to a feeding frenzy where they joined a couple of Cormorants.
Female-Merganser, With Young, Rushing To Feeding Frenzy, Chatfield.
I noticed this group had been following the Cormorants around the lake. Perhaps the Cormorants were stirring up the fish? Every time the Cormorants surfaced around the lake, the Mergansers were not too far away. I was lucky to see the running on the water and feeding frenzy! In the image below, the young Merganser at the right had caught a small fish. It looks like the Cormorant on the left was swallowing some fish too.
Young Mergansers At Feeding Frenzy With Cormorants, Chatfield.
Later, as we headed back along the trail, I noticed a fledgling house wren that had just landed on branch. This little bird was learning to fly.
Fledgling House Wren, Learning To Fly, Chatfield.
I managed to capture this fledgling as it was exercising it’s wings. Those wings are just too small!
My Wings Are Too Small. Fledgling House Wren, Chatfield.
I had seen this fledgling had leaving the branch outside the cavity nest below. We hung around this nest to see what else was happening. It turned out that the two parent House Wrens were taking turns feeding their babies in the cavity nest. Here one parent was delivering some tasty fast food for the young!
Parent House Wren, Feeding Babies In Nest, Chatfield.
We could see a couple of babies in the cavity with their mouths wide open. Perhaps the fledgling that I noticed was also from the same brood, but had left earlier?
This year we found that Chatfield offered some eventful trips!
During our visits to the Chatfield State Park, we encountered many Hummingbirds. If one is familiar with hummingbirds, the first thing that is noticed is the high pitched wing beats when they are in flight at speed. Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds are some of the more common varieties that we see. When approaching close to a nest, these birds occasionally hover close by.
During early June, I found this female hummingbird perched on a branch. Periodically, she would take flight and hover around as I moved.
Female Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, Near Nest, Audubon.
This gave me a clue that I should vacate the area so that her nest was not disturbed. I made another image as she returned to a different perch.
Female Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, Audubon.
We made several trips to Chatfield during the month of June, where I managed to capture a male bird that was perched on a branch in the middle of feeding.
Male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, Chatfield.
This year, we heard reports of a Red-Headed Woodpecker in Chatfield. Last weekend, we headed down to the State Park, hoping to find this infrequent visitor to this area. While there, I noticed a Broad-Tailed Hummingbird, hovering and feeding under the cover of some trees. As we moved away this bird disappeared from sight. I decided to retrace our path, and this bird re-appeared. There was a nest close by, so I moved away and soon this female bird settled into her nest. I made a couple of images of her on her nest as we left the area. Her nest was a lot taller, and more elongated, than many of the hummingbird nests we often see.
Female Broad-Tailed Hummingbird On Nest, Chatfield.
Returning back by a different route, I noticed a male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird hovering near a thistle bush.
Male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird Feeding, Chatfield, No 1.
Here I made several images the male fed from the thistle flower, in between perching on close by branches.
Male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird Feeding, Chatfield, No 2.
These hummingbirds are tiny, some 2-1/2 to 3 inches in length, and hover with several hundred wing beats per minute. Also, their wings are so thin that they are translucent, as can be seen in the image below.
Male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird Feeding, Chatfield, No 3.
Returning to the vehicle, we passed by another (empty) hummingbird nest. These nests are typically the size of a (breakfast) egg cup. The specimen below is the typical shape of one of these nests.
Typical Hummingbird Nest, Chatfield.
During our return trip to the vehicle, we did eventually see the Red-Headed Woodpecker perched in a dead tree. It soon fled as a couple of Ospreys flew by with fish that they had caught.
