I'm In a Fowl Mood

Yesterday, as we sat at our table in the campground at Cherry Creek, there were all sorts of birds flying around in the meadow.  Soon I realized my mission for the day was to get some good pics of them, or at least make the attempt.  Some, like the robin who wakes us up with his song every morning, are easy to take a photo of.  They stay put, even when you get fairly close.  Others, like the Western Tanager, don't stay in one place for very long and are always flying from tree to tree.

Yep, I was in a "fowl" mood.  Don't ask Don about the play on words.  He might just tell you I have other

days like this, but it is the other foul word! I digress....back to the bird pictures.

This is the beautiful Western Tanager.  When he landed in the tall grass, all you could see was his head.

 A Western Kingbird in a tree near our RV.

We saw these two Mallards when we went for a walk in the wetland area of the park.  I can just imagine one say to the other. "Hey Mack, if you look sideways at her, she sure looks a bit odd."

This little fella is a Western Wood Peewee Flycatcher. 

The Magpies are large and very aggressive birds.  They will gang up on other birds and dive bomb the squirrels.  Pretty, but dangerous if you are a fellow feathered species.

We had seen this Prairie Falcon earlier in the day when we were bike riding.  We drove back with my good camera, and he was still flying between his two favorite tall trees by the lake.  Guess the grassland between the trees must provide some good meals for him (or her).

 

“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” 
― Willie Nelson

7th summer of travel

Day 1 of our 2013 summer travels:  The engine light appears on the dashboard of our Ram truck just after we crossed the border into New Mexico.  Crap!  How can that be?  We just had the truck checked out last week at the dealership in Avondale.  These newer cars and trucks are just way too complex and it could be anything from a dirty air cleaner to dozens of other things.  None the less, we make it to Albuquerque.

Day 2:  Don heads out in the morning to the local Larry Miller Dodge dealership to have the truck checked out.  The last thing we need to do is be stranded somewhere along I-25 in New Mexico with only cattle and antelope to talk to!  At first, Don calls and tells me it cost $1000 to get it fixed. While I am having a minor meltdown, he backs down and tells me it cost nothing and was under warranty.  It was an update that was needed.  For crying out loud, why couldn't they have discovered that a few days earlier when it was being worked on?   Argh...
We get a late start, and run into wind, rain, a dust storm and more pockets of showers. I am thankful it wasn't snow!  We get to Colorado Springs during the beginning of rush hour traffic and a long line of cars because of construction in that area.  That delays us even further, making us get into full blown Denver rush  traffic at 5 PM.  I got so frustrated that I timed part of it:  we went 1.5 miles in ten minutes.  The really bad part of this was the fact that we had stopped in Trinidad where I got a cup of coffee.  Even before we got to Denver, my eyeballs were turning slightly yellow and I felt every bump in the road.  Note to self: NEVER, ever do that again when the two hour maximum time limit for my bladder will commence when we are getting into a large city!  Even though we were stopping a lot, I don't think the people behind us would have liked me getting out and going back to the trailer for my much-needed pit stop.  We finally made it to Cherry Creek campground by 6:30, tired and hungry.
Day 3:
Ah, so glad to be back at Cherry Creek State Park!  It will be a good 20 degrees cooler here than at home.

We biked on some of the great trails in the park and came across a nice quiet little pond close to the large lake.

On the pond were one goose and 2 "headless" ducks.  I took several pictures of them, and each time they ducked their heads back under the water.  We both enjoy seeing the abundance of robins, water fowl, magpies and other birds in this park.  This is the reward for the 2 long days of travel. It was well worth it.