During the late summer, we traveled to Alaska (more on that trip later), which was nice because it isn’t only Florida that gets hot in the summer.  We found out just how hot it can be in Colorado too.  So when we returned to Colorado in mid-September, it wasn’t long before the autumn season to begin to emerge. First, there’s a wonderful crispness to the atmosphere and the leaves start to turn yellow.   To see our first signs of color we headed up to the Grand Mesa.  There we saw the first  colors beginning to reflect in the lake waters. Yes, the aspens have turned shad ..read more

One of our favorite places to go not too far from our home base is the grand Mesa Wilderness.  It’s only about 1/2 hr to the exit off I-70, then about another 1/2 hr all of the way to the top.  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of fun stuff from the canyon floor to the Mesa vista to see … to the contrary, there are subjects to see all along the way.  On this couple of days in late spring, I thought I would share some fun images. I was speaking to someone today about birds that you see in one locale (i.e. state) that you don’t in another … such birds are what I call “ho hu ..read more

Growing up within a few miles of the ocean, I have fond memories of the coastal shoreline, the sounds of the waves crashing onto the shoreline and the birds flying about, the smell of the salt air, the winds blowing across my face, the feel of sand between my toes, and watching the sun rise (or fall) across the horizon of the ocean.  I wondered if I would miss it once I became “landlocked” in Colorado.  To my surprise, I didn’t miss it all that much.  It seemed that I traded it with mountains, red rock canyons and landscapes, more varied wildlife, less crowds, and more quiet. Fa ..read more

I never was much of a “smaller bird” watcher in Florida … don’t know why, but I just wasn’t.  Probably though I found them a bit frustrating to photograph as they darted in and out of the bushy trees.  LOL.  However, here on the western slope, I find it more fun to photograph them and have learned a whole lot about them. On of the more popular and quite beautiful birds that we get is the Bullock’s oriole.  Being mostly bright orange with a black crown and eye line they are quite easily spotted as they dart from tree to bushes, feeding on berries, fruits, and small insects ..read more

What can I say about owls?  I just ADORE them!  Whether they’re burrowing owls (as blogged about last post), or any of the other North American species (great horned, barred, northern hawk, northern pygmy, northern saw whet, snowy, great gray, barn, boreal, flammulated, ferruginous pygmy, long-eared, short-eared, spotted owl) … oh, and I can’t forget the screech owls – eastern and western species. In Florida, we were graced with a pair of eastern screech owls which took up residence in our yard, or in a neighbor’s yard, and gave us the opportunity to watch their young grow up and eve ..read more

So, during the 2017 burrowing owl season of raising the young owlets, I knew that we were moving to Colorado before I could get another years worth of the “owl fun”.  I was determined to get my fill, if you will, of these incredibly personable cuties.  These images in this, as well as the others posted in the last year, have been from the 2017 season. With that, I invite you to sit back and check out this next installment of images … and laugh if you will, but appreciate how amazing these little owls are. Adult burrowing owls, especially the dads, play a huge role in keeping the intr ..read more

Not too long ago we amde a trip to British Columbia for some birding opportunities.  One of the places that we visited was the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta, B.C. (Canada).  It has been designated as a site of Hemispheric Importance by the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network.  Consisting of marshes, wetlands, and dikes, one can see a sampling of the approximately 250 species that, at one time or another, call the sanctuary home.People tend to ask when the best time to visit there (or anywhere else for that matter) … well, it all depends on what you ..read more

Everyone knows that my absolute favorite subject to photograph are bears … brown bears, black bears, polar bears … it doesn’t matter.  They are far and above my number one!  After bears, my affection goes to owls … great horned, burrowing, western screech, barn, eastern screech, barred, short-eared, long-eared, northern pygmy, northern saw whet, or even the snowy (yes, we had one visit once in FL, believe it or not).  After bears and owls, come fox!  Yes FOX, and in 2018 so far, I’ve had my share of them. One encounter, my first in Colorado, was particularly exciting for me ..read more

Back to checking out the local birds of the western slope of Colorado.  What I have found since being here is that you never know what … or where … you ‘re going to find our feathered friends. Case in point, while visiting a local park, we saw a flock of birds arriving at the lake.  I looked and immediately declared (to myself) that these were glossy ibis.  After a quick check for CO birds, I noticed that they don’t get glossy ibis like we did in Florida.  Rather, these were white-faced ibis.  Very similar except for the white colored face … both species though are ver ..read more

In the last blog post, I shared images from a spring trip to the small town of Walden, CO.  Though we saw a variety of wildlife as well as a variety of birds, it wasn’t actually the purpose of our trip.  See, we had a date with some greater sage grouse.  I was quite excited and totally willing to get up at 4 AM, gather up my gear, layer up for the coldness of the early spring morning, and head out to meet our group. The Chamber of Commerce of North Park and Colorado Parks & Wildlife offer spectators and photographers an opportunity to observe these amazing grouse from a view ..read more