I went to visit my favorite eagle’s nest this AM, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new arrival. Unfortunately the little guy (or gal) did not really cooperate very well, at least when the lighting was good. While it was too dim to shoot pics, I did take a quick bit of video of the parents feeding it just as the sun popped over the horizon. You never get a great view of it but you can see its little head bobbing up as Mom offers some rabbit for breakfast.
Swainson’s Hawk weathers Colorado’s spring snowstorm
Taken last weekend as the Centennial State was getting pounded by a significant storm. This poor hawk was undoubtedly wishing it had stayed in Argentina for a couple more weeks. It was perched in a tree northeast of Denver and had ice on its head, chest and tail feathers. No doubt it wasn’t much fun for the creature.
Juvenile Bald Eagle makes a very close flyby
It has been a long time since I posted a pic of a young one and then I remembered a series of images I got of this gorgeous one back in February.
I had staked out a spot at a lake in northeast Colorado and was sitting and waiting for the eagles to come to me – and boy did this one! It flew about 15 feet over my head, seemingly totally oblivious to my presence. It came so close that I couldn’t get zoomed out fast enough to capture all of it but in the end I think it worked out well. Lots of detail in this image.
Bald Eagle brings home bunny for breakfast for Freedom Friday
Here on the plains of Colorado, there aren’t a lot of bodies of water so Bald Eagles don’t have easy access to their preferred meal of fish. However, there is no shortage of substitutes with rabbits and prairie dogs making up the difference.
While observing this nest in Jefferson County recently, I saw the male dive to the ground at something. I wasn’t able to get into position to get the actual snag of its prey but the eagle did land on a branch and pose with it for a moment. It then took the meal to the nest for its mate which after a while appeared to feed it to little ones.
I’ll be heading back to this spot this weekend and hoping I can finally see the eaglets that I am certain are there.
Scroll down to view the complete sequence.
Mama bear comes down the mountain
An image for #TBT showing a Black Bear sow as she descends the rocky slopes of Waterton Canyon back in August. Her and her two cubs put on one heck of a show that day in an experience I will never forget.
Bears should be emerging from their winter dens now and no doubt will be very hungry after their long slumber. I’m pinning my hopes of seeing bears this year on a trip to the northern Rockies? in a couple of months. I just have to hope the bruins cooperate!
Best tip for spotting Great Horned Owls
How do you find owls? It’s as easy as X marks the spot. 😉
Burrowing Owl pair keeps close watch
This beautiful pair of small owls has staked out a nice home on some private property northeast of Denver, Colorado. Thankfully they should be safe as mating season begins and they hopefully raise a nice little family in the coming months. However, many others of this threatened species, won’t be given that same opportunity due to their choice of home location.
Denver International Airport owns a great deal of property in the area, much outside of the airport’s fences. Over the past month, a massive operation to wipe out Prairie Dog habitat and thus historical Burrowing Owl habitat and raptor feeding grounds, has been undertaken by the airport and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
One location that already had owls in it was poisoned and bulldozed, something that is entirely illegal. This is being done ostensibly to mitigate the hazards of a bird striking an airplane, something that is a very real danger.
However, DIA’s and the USDA’s actions appear to have gone wholly overboard. In fact, it may have the opposite effect as without raptors in the area, other birds like geese and ducks that are for more prevalent will come to the area knowing there are no predators. I searched the FAA’s bird strike database for DIA and found that raptors in fact account for a very small percentage of bird strikes at the facility.
It is rather disheartening to see such total disregard for wildlife, particularly when it involves a threatened species like the Burrowing Owl and protected species like the Bald Eagle.
An ‘aged’ Bison portrait for Tatanka Tuesday
An image from a couple of weeks ago when cold, snow and dim lighting made for tough shooting conditions and subject matter was sparse. I did come across four easily accessible bison at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge though.
It seemed like there were often distracting elements behind them so I did a lot of close ups and played around with some filters in post-processing on a few of them. The ‘aged’ coloring of the image, to me, invokes the old American West when millions of these creatures roamed the landscape.
Bison were hunted to the brink of extinction in the 1700s and 1800s with as few as 750 reported by 1890. Their numbers have since rebounded with about 500,000 now living on public and private lands. Native Americans call them Tatanka, a Lakota word that translated literally means “bull buffalo.”
This image is available for purchase in a wide variety of formats here.
Portrait of a Red Fox
Oh what a rare opportunity it was when a friend invited me over to see this gorgeous creature. It was calmly lounging in the backyard without a care in the world and no worries about the two shutterbugs that were furiously taking pictures of it.
This image was one of the last I took, as it became bored with us and got ready to leave. As it did, it paused just long enough for me get its portrait. Beautiful!
Red Foxes are quite common across the entire Northern Hemisphere from near the equator to the Arctic Circle. As shown here, they are extremely adaptable and able to coexist in areas with large human populations.
Mule deer fawn waits for the snow to end
The Colorado Front Range was hit by a heck of a snowstorm over the past couple of days; Mother Nature’s way of reminding us exactly who is in control.
This mule deer and a lot of its friends had found a nice place under a tree to bed down that wasn’t covered in snow. That did not mean it was entirely dry as you can tell.
Good thing for it that wildlife is pretty well adapted for this type of thing plus, as is typical in Colorado, we’ll be right back to the 70s by the end of the week.