Photographer in Colorado

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.

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.

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.

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.

Returning back by a different route, I noticed a male Broad-Tailed Hummingbird hovering near a thistle bush.

Here I made several images the male fed from the thistle flower, in between perching on close by branches.

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.

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.

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.

This year we heard of reports of an American Redstart near the Audubon Center at Chatfield. During a late afternoon in early June, we headed down to the Audubon Center to see for ourselves; we did find a nesting pair. Later when returning back to our vehicle, we stopped off near the Center. Here we found a Tree Swallow perched on the roof of a bird feeder.

After a while, we noticed a second Swallow flying close by, so I decided to approach closer to capture this image of the female bird on the feeder roof.

Soon it became apparent that this was a breeding pair; the male bird flew in.

And began mating with the the female.

This continued several times over the next 15 minutes that we were there. Here is another image of the male flying in.

I made several images of the mating pair before we returned home.

We were both fortunate to see this mating display as well as the nesting Redstart!

Every year, I make photographs of the irises that grow in our front yard. It has always been challenging to make some good images of these flowering plants in the Spring. Let’s start with this image of an iris before the flower opens.

When capturing macro images, close up, only a thin sliver of the flower would be in focus. The image above was made by capturing many frames, each focused on a thin slice of the flower, and stacking these frames into one image; this is known as focus stacking. The final image has far more in-focus detail.

Looking around our iris flower bed, I found another open flower that has a prominent beard and stigma. The beard is always the most difficult to capture. In this image, I like how the yellow/orange tones in the funnel portion (behind the beard) have rendered.

These irises generally produce group that contains three beards. I found another flower where one can see two beards. I also included the bud of another flower as a foreground in this side-on image.

Although the flowers are really beautiful when open, they eventually wither. They are equally magnificent when the petal parts have collapsed and dried out, as can be seen in the image below.

Typically, one iris plant produces one or more stalks. Each stalk often have several flowers that grow at several points along this stalk. In the image below, we see a stalk with two flowers that have opened and withered. In the center is a new bud that is forming at the base of the two earlier flowers.

I found another partially withered iris plant that has some really detailed surface texture.

This final image is one of my favorites from this year. I like the diffused warm tones in the background as the sun dropped in the evening sky.

This is the second and last part of my trip to the Chalk Arts Festival yesterday. I saw this art work and decided that I really need to zoom into to those big teeth! Looks like this dog has a missing canine!

The Festival had various vendors spread out through various street locations around the Denver Art Museum. Here the popsicle vendor was taking order details from the little girl in front of the ice box.

I always like to get some of the other details of creating the art work. Nearby, was this Chalk artist who was busy creating her work. Close to her was her magic box of supplies that included various pastel crayons.

Here is another art work of the “Back Alley Garden Gang”. I really liked the depiction of the chickens with their boxing gloves!

I found the image (by Madonnara) of the lady with dragon to be the most detailed and appealing to me.

There were some really interesting characters that were visiting the Festival. This cool dog was wearing really cool sunglasses!

There were some really colorful people visiting the Festival. Here a couple with striking clothing were busy tending to a bicycle that was locked to a bike rack.

There was one stage that was used for music performances during the Festival. Here a drum technician was busy setting up the drum kit for a performance.

Whenever kids are present, there are always items of clothing and footwear that get lost. I found this pink shoe and was busy capturing an image. Fortunately, the Dad came back to fetch the shoe. I picked it up and handed to him for his daughter to wear again!

Here is a lost toy that I found in a puddle of water from a previous day’s rain storm. Don’t know whether this toy is a frog or dinosaur! When I passed this spot later, the toy was gone.

Where was Lilly? This image looks like the outline of a crime scene.

Leaving the Festival, I passed by one part of the Denver Art Museum. The windows rendered some really interesting elongated curved reflections of nearby surrounding window. Looks like a girl was making a video call on here smart phone.

This festival is a lot of fun to visit. It was a few years since my last visit, and we’ll see what it created next year and beyond.

This last weekend was the Denver Chalk Arts Festival. This is an annual event that I last attended in 2019. This year, the chalk art was located very close to the the Art Museum. The art works are applied to the asphalt pavement on the streets. Art work disappears after a few days of vehicle traffic and some rain. Most of the art work is “flat”, as can be seen with the squirrels; Meininger are one of the local art stores and sponsor the artist for the image below.

This year, I noticed a lot more “3-D” work being displayed. In this image, Nareen Schroder created a 3-D work for Denver Art Museum.

Here is another 3-D work of Hungry Hippos.

Visitors are encouraged to sit on the Hippo. In this image, I captured a visitor sitting on one of the Hippos. This enhances the 3-D illusion on the flat pavement.

This fire breathing dragon is another 3-D piece that I found.

I always like to capture some images that include the artist while creating the art work. The young girl was a bystander that I included in this image.

Here is another art work “Kroger Burger” that is almost 3-D. This is surrounded by the two “flat” works on either side.

There were several street vendors that offered food and beverages to the visitors. One booth was selling pineapple juice to visitors. Behind the rear of the booth, I found boxes of pineapples (the supplies for the vendor).

Here is another fun art work that I titled “Manhole Cover Chaos”.

I was amused to find a monkey in Residence for Cirque Du Soleil, in the image below. This is another 3-D work. The young child in the background seems to be enjoying his popsicle!

That’s all for now. More to come.

At the Quivira refuge, the Avocets were busy wading and feeding close to the shoreline. I could not resist capturing more images of these graceful birds. In the image below, I liked how the bird was reflected in the water.

Here is another image of a pair of Avocets foraging close to the edge of the shore.

The closest bird moved ahead of the rear bird, dipping its bill into the water. I like the almost perfect reflection of this Avocet’s head in the water.

There were several other birds that flew by during our visit to Quivira, including some Terns. I managed to capture this image of a Forster’s Tern as it banked in-flight.

We were lucky to see an American Bittern that had landed in the marshes across the road from the pond. These birds can be very elusive, as they maintain a stationary position among the reeds of a marsh.

After a break for lunch, we headed out of Quivira passing through the town of Ellinwood. We found a small flock of several Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks in a park close to town center.

That evening, after dinner, we headed back to Cheyenne Bottoms to view the sunset across the ponds. All the while, the marshes were full of birds making a cacophony of sounds before they set out for another round of migration.

The following morning, we continued our birding adventure by visiting Cheyenne Bottoms just after sunrise. In the marshes beside the road, we found several Short-Billed Dowitchers foraging in the water. These birds have exceptionally long bills, compared to their head size! When feeding, they dip their bills into the mud to feed on bugs, with an action that looks like sewing machines!

Later that same morning, we drove through some of the surrounding grassland area of the refuge. Here we found an Upland Plover that was perched on a fence post.

Soon after, we started to head back home, making frequent stops for breaks and lunch along the way. This was a most enjoyable birding tour, also seeing some new species of bird life.

During the first weekend in May, we visited two of the wetland wildlife refuges in Kansas. We registered for a birding tour that was based in Great Bend. This tour included travel to Great Bend by mini-bus. May is the month when many bird species are in the Spring migration to the northern hemisphere. Most of the birds that we would be seeing, would be shorebirds.

On arrival, we stopped at the Cheyenne Bottoms refuge, where we became familiar with the area and what we could expect to see over the weekend. Later, we checked into the hotel and headed to dinner.

The following morning, at sunrise, we made our way to the Quivira refuge that is located a few miles south of Great Bend. Here, we spent a couple of hours, where we saw many of the shorebirds up close. Many of these birds probably arrived at the refuge during the previous night.

There were several different bird species at this stop. I made an image of a Black-Necked Stilt that was wading through the water close to the shore.

Several Stilts were located in this pond. Occasionally, they moved to different locations around the pond as they were feeding. In the following image, we see a Stilt in-flight to another location.

The American Avocet is another species that we found in the same pond. In the image above, several Avocets that are out of focus, can be seen in the background. I managed to capture one of these spectacular birds in-flight.

This Avocet was joining a fellow traveler that was feeding close to the shore.

Another species that we found was the Wilson’s Phalarope. These little shorebirds spend much of their time swimming in the ponds, close to the shore, rather that wading in shallower water at the edges of the pond.

These Phalaropes typically swim in circles in the water. This spinning motion causes bugs and other food to be brought to the surface where they are consumed by the birds. In the image below, the closest Phalarope is in the middle of this “spinning” motion.

This bird then approached the shore, where I managed to capture another image where the bird is larger in frame.

During the course of the weekend we saw many hundreds of Wilson’s Phalaropes in many of the ponds that we visited. It was quite fun the see larger flocks of birds, that were in constant spinning motions in the various ponds and wetlands that we visited.