Week before last we spent a few days at Monte Vista, where we visited the National Wildlife Refuge. After checking in the hotel, we made our way to the Refuge. Near the entrance, this Magpie was calling out from the sage brush.
Magpie, Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge.
Later we headed to the ponds. On this visit, there were many groups of Ruddy Ducks swimming in the pond. This year, we were fortunate that they came reasonably close to us. This allowed me to get a decent image of a male Ruddy Duck that was pursuing a female by the cattails. The males are very distinctive with their blue bills and a nice big smile.
Male Ruddy Duck, Monte Vista.
The following morning we visited the ponds just as the sun was rising. During the night, most of the ponds freeze over with the freezing temperatures. The Sandhill Cranes spend the night close to water to keep safe from predators. As the temperatures warm, the cranes leave the ponds to find feeding grounds during the day. It is always fun to watch the cranes take off during the morning. Sometimes we are lucky to capture some images of the birds in flight.
Sandhill Crane, Taking Off, Monte Vista.
Cranes frequently adopt this pose before they take flight. Here I managed to capture four birds about the take off from the frozen pond.
Sandhill Cranes, Waiting To Go.
I attempted to capture some birds in flight. In this image, I capture this pair as they flew out after sunrise over the cattails that line the edges of the ponds.
Sandhill Crane Pair, In Flight.
There were a few Canada Geese in the same pond. I noticed a group of several geese that were making their way to open water away from the cranes. It appears that geese need more length to take flight than the cranes. Soon the geese took off. I managed to capture an image of one of these geese.
Canada Goose, Leaving The Icy Pond.
During our first morning, the moon was slowly dipping down over the San Juan Mountains. I captured this moonset just before the moon dropped behind the mountains.
Moonset Over San Juans, Monte Vista.
We had a really enjoyable time birding and photographing just before the weekend started.
Every day, I take an hour or so to get some exercise. This is usually a bike ride or, when conditions are not good, a walk through our neighborhood. The latter is more usual during the winter months! Earlier this month, after a recent snow storm, this walk took me near Porter Hospital. The light at the end of the day was fabulous as sunset approached. In this image the setting sun cast shadows from a tree across the frozen surface of the street.
Winter Sunset Reflections, Denver.
That evening’s walk, took me through the parking lot where the snow had been cleared earlier in the day.
Parking Lot Reflections At Sunset.
There is one spot where the melted water drains in a shallow trough that runs across the parking lot. Here the sun caught reflections of one of the buildings in the background.
Parking Lot Reflections At Sunset, No 2.
At the nearby parking garage, I captured this image of the reflections. Here the building walls are constructed from brick. The coloring of the brick just adds to the intensity of the orange reflections at sunset.
Porter Hospital Parking Garage Reflections.
I made the following image before moving on with the evening’s walk.
Porter Hospital Parking Garage Reflections, No 2.
A few days later, I uploaded these images to my computer and was pleased with the stunning results!
We have had several snow storms this year. The snow melts in the heat of the daylight sun and freezes on the following night. The ice creates some really interesting patterns when freezes. Last week, I decided to attempt to capture some abstract images of these ice patterns. These images were made of the ice that formed along the kerb at the edge of our street.
Ice Patterns In The Street.
Some leaves got trapped by the freezing ice. This created a nice contrast between the white of the ice and the orange/brown of the leaves.
Leaves Trapped In The Ice.
Further down the street, an ice arc was formed at the edge of the street.
Ice Arc.
This image reminds me of the images of nebulae that were captured by the Hubble telescope.
Ice Nebula.
The was a wide variety of different colors that could be found. This looks like the surface of an ice planet against the dark of the night.
Ice, Light And Dark.
Did someone throw out some ice crystals out into the street?
Ice Crystals.
That was a lot of fun capturing all those ice patterns. Some thing that would be difficult to do in the spring or summer!
Sounds like a Bond movie! We heard that there was a Pipit along the South Platte River. Also, we heard that a Barrow’s Goldeneye was also spotted. So yesterday, we headed to the location on the South Platte. Birds often keep returning to the same location every year. This Goldeneye was no exception — last year we saw him there.
Barrow’s Goldeneye Male, South Platte.
The Platte River has several Goldeneyes that are resident during the winter. The Common Goldeneye is very common. So, will we see both male Barrow’s Goldeneye and Common Goldeneye at the same location?
Barrow’s Goldeneye And Common Goldeneye Male.
The Barrow’s Goldeneye male has white spots rather than the black stripes that separate the while plumage. And what about male and female Barrow’s and Common Goldeneyes?
Mixed Goldeneyes, Male And Female, South Platte.
The females are difficult to tell apart. So we don’t know whether we saw female Barrow’s. But a couple of the females were following the male Barrow’s Goldeneye. While photographing, I noticed some movement as the male took flight upstream. Two females followed him; one female bird was at the top edge of the frame.
Barrow’s Goldeneye Pair, In Flight, No 1.
I managed to get a second image as I panned to follow the ducks’ flight path.
Barrow’s Goldeneye Pair, In Flight, No 2.
The male Barrow’s Goldeneye landed back in the water. When we caught up with the bird, there were four females accompanying him.
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Male And Females, No 1.
Looks like those females were really attracted to the male. Was he trying to swim away?
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Male Leading And Females, No 1.
The group proceeded to swim upstream in one long line, with the females trailing the male.
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Male Leading And Females, No 2.
I made several images of this group. I like the image below, where the female in the lead looked back wards. Was she checking for competition from the other three females?
Barrow’s Goldeneye, Male Leading And Females, No 3.
Soon we headed back towards the parked truck. I noticed a few Bufflehead ducks. In this image, I found a male and female pair swimming together.
Bufflehead Pair, South Platte.
They soon joined some more Buffleheads, below.
Bufflehead Group, South Platte.
The river always has a large number of Northern Shovelers. As we walked further, I noticed this male and female, standing as on stilts, next to one another.
Northern Shoveler Pair, Dozing.
Finally, the male Barrow’s had turned around and headed downstream. Was he able to break free from those four femaies?
Barrow’s Goldeneye Male, Swimming Away.
We both enjoyed the trip to see the Goldeneyes. We never did get to see the Pipit that was reported earlier in the day.
Last Sunday, I had so much fun with the Mergansers in the Platte River, so I decided to post images of the other ducks separately. There were several Goldeneye ducks in the river, so I had the opportunity to make several images. I chose this image because of the expression and open mouth of this male bird.
Male Goldeneye, Reynolds Landing.
One of the Goldeneyes decided to fly up-stream to another location. I was lucky enough to see him take flight. This is one of the in-flight images from a burst of several. I was pleased that there is a reflection of the duck in the water.
Goldeneye, In Flight, Reynolds Landing.
The Mallards were also busy in the river. This female bird spent much of the time preening her plumage and exercising her wings.
Female Mallard Exercising Wings.
I headed down-stream, where earlier I had spotted another group of ducks. Here I found this pair of Mallards resting on the rock. In the background was a Male Goldeneye cruising past.
Goldeneye, Cruising Past The Mallards.
At another nearby rock, an American Coot and Mallard, were perched. I had not seen this pairing on a small piece of real estate — the Mallard left the rock a few minutes later.
Coot And Mallard, Sharing The Rock.
In the meantime, that Male Goldeneye was busy cruising along the river behind the Coot’s rock.
Goldeneye, Cruising Along, Reynolds Landing, No 1.
Here is another image of the same Goldeneye, cruising back and forth.
Goldeneye, Cruising Along, Reynolds Landing, No 2.
Later, I moved to another location along the Platte River, closer to C-470. After arriving, I noticed this Belted Kingfisher. This has been the closest that got to these skittish birds.
Belted Kingfisher, South Platte Park.
The Kingfisher was watching for prey above a pool in the water, where several different ducks were busy feeding. Here is a pair of American Wigeons busy paddling in search of food.
American Wigeon Pair, South Platte Park.
At the bridge where C-470 crosses the river, I found these two ducks up-ended in the water.
Up-Ended, Under The Bridge.
Two male Mallards were the usual suspects.
Pair Of Mallards, Under The Bridge.
Returning back towards the parking lot, I was close to the Kingfisher’s pool. Here I found this “Gang of Four” Ring-Necked Ducks.
Ring-Necked Duck, Gang Of Four.
That concluded the images from an enjoyable birding outing to the Platte River.
This last Sunday, I headed down to Reynolds Landing to do some birding and maybe capture some images. Soon after arriving, I found several groups of Hooded Mergansers in the river. At this time of year, the sun was getting low in the sky, so the colors reflected in the water was spectacular. This was a fun group of mergansers that kept me occupied.
Hooded Merganser Group, Reynolds Landing.
These mergansers have crests or hoods. The females have brown plumage, as shown below.
Female Hooded Merganser, Reynolds Landing.
While observing the mergansers, they dip into the water looking for food. I was fortunate to see this female surface with a huge crawdad in her bill. What luck!
Female Hooded Merganser, With Crawdad, No 1.
I made a few images of this bird. Here is another image. Yes, she did swallow the crawdad whole, but that was after I finished shooting a burst of images.
Female Hooded Merganser, With Crawdad, No 2.
This little merganser must have got quite wet dipping into the water to catch that huge crawdad. In this image, she was exercising her wings to shake of the water. Probably also to show off to the other ducks too!
Female Hooded Merganser Exercising Wings.
I also managed to capture a male merganser exercising his wings too. Perhaps he is trying to attract the female who did a great job of catching the crawdad!
Male Merganser Exercising Wings.
Later in the afternoon, I headed south near C-470. At this time, the sun was very low in the sky, about 30 minutes before sunset. Another female merganser made her way close to my location. The low sun was reflecting off the surface waves, lighting up her head.
Female Hooded Merganser, Catching Reflections.
That is all for the mergansers. The next post will have the remaining ducks that I encountered. It was really fun to see the mergansers catch their food and exercise their wings.
After packing up the test at the camp site, I headed out of Death Valley to Las Vegas and then on to Hurricane. Zion National Park is a few miles east of Hurricane, so I managed to spend a couple of hours in the late afternoon. The Watchman is one feature at the entrance to the park, and was still lit by the setting sun. So I headed up to a location where there is a decent foreground to make this location.
The Watchman, Zion, 2021.
Zion had also received that same weather system from the west coast, as evidenced by the snow above. By the time I arrived, the snow had melted, so when I got back to the truck… time to clean boots again!
The next morning, I headed towards Moab along state roads 12 and 24 through Utah. Near Henrieville, I pulled off near the mesa to make this image of the cliffs against the clear blue sky.
Mesa Near Henrieville.
The route back to Moab passes through the Capitol Reef National Park near Torrey. So I spent a couple of hours there. In this image the sandstone cliffs stood out against a blue sky. By this time, there were a couple of thin wispy clouds above the cliffs that I included in the image.
Capitol Reef, No 1.
At the entrance to the park, I stopped by the Fremont River. After walking down to the river, a couple of deer crossed in front of me. This deer stopped to see what I was up to!
Deer, Fremont River.
As the sun moved lower through the sky, the cliff and canyon walls reflected in the river, creating these spectacular orange/brown reflections in the water.
Canyon Reflections, Fremont River.
The road leaving the park passes through Cathedral Valley near the town of Caineville. I stopped to make this image of the valley cliffs, lit by the last rays of the setting sun.
Cathedral Valley Sunset, Caineville.
A few miles later, the full moon rose above the road, but I continued on to Moab for the last night before returning home.
Continuing with my recent trip to California in December… Leaving Monterey, I headed to Salinas and then to Paso Robles along Highway 101. While driving, I noticed that the coastal range was covered with snow from the previous night’s storm. From here, I made my way east to Highway 99 and down to Bakersfield. Much of the journey was under overcast skies.
The next morning, I made my way towards Lake Isabella. Highway closed due to snow. So I headed south and joined Highway 58 to Techachapi. After a few miles, I encountered line of semi’s several miles long in both lanes. Eventually, I managed to leave the highway, returning to Bakersfield to join 99 and later I-5. This was an alternate route to Ridgecrest, via Lancaster.
I could now continue towards Death Valley. Along the route are the Trona Pinnacles. Here I stopped to capture in this image.
Trona Pinnacles.
These are remnants of ancient tufas that once formed below a lake in the Panamint Valley.
Pinnacle And Grass.
Eventually, I got to Death Valley via the western entrance at Town Pass. There was low cloud down to ground level and a few inches of snow over the summit; this was the result of the same storm that had visited Monterey and the Salinas Valley the previous day. Several roads in Death Valley were being cleared of mud that had been washed down by the rain. Several campsites at Furnace Creek were under water. Fortunately, the one I had reserved was not affected. There must have been several cancellations or abandoned plans, as many previously reserved sites were now vacant.
The next day, I visited several familiar areas. The playa, which always seems to have water during the winter, was very muddy!
Playa, Death Valley, No 1.
But worth cleaning muddy boots later!
Playa, Death Valley, No 2.
During the afternoon, I made my way to Artist’s Palette. The low clouds had been hanging over Telescope Peak and the Panamint mountain range for much of the day. However, the backlit mountains and clouds made for some spectacular stormy scenes.
Afternoon Storm, Death Valley.
I made several stops along Artist’s Drive, making images of the colorful rock formations that give Artist’s Palette its’ name.
Artist’s Palette, Death Valley, No 1.
There was even a couple having their wedding photo session taken along the route.
Artist’s Palette, Death Valley, No 2.
This is the final image before the sun set over the Panamint mountain range for the day.
Artist’s Palette, Death Valley, No 3.
The next morning, I was up early to view the sunrise over the valley. Over the past few years, I have visited this area several times; every visit presents remarkably different scenery.
Playa Salt Crust, Death Valley.
This year, the surface was covered with tall encrusted salt ridges — much different to my first visit.
