Photographer in Colorado

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.