Avocets in Colorado

After my disappointment at driving all the way to Utah to see the Avocets and finding nary a baby in sight, I was thrilled to find an Avocet just a few miles from Tyson and Jen’s house. On our visit to East Lake Shores Park I was greeted by an Avocet that landed right in front of me.

I spent several minutes photographing it feeding

and flying away.

When it flew away it flew right past another Avocet feeding, and when I focused on that Avocet I noticed it had a juvenile with it.

Although the juvenile wasn’t as young as those I’d hoped to see at Bear River, I enjoyed watching it forage while its parent stood guard nearby.

I can’t remember ever seeing an Avocet in Colorado before, much less one with a chick.

Birds are Always Where You Find Them

With everyone at Church, Leslie and I headed out to East Lake Shores Park for some birding. Although we had visited the park several times on our earlier visits, I couldn’t get anyone else enthused about visiting it on this trip. As it turned out, the birding was great.

Leslie has been searching for Killdeer chicks at Theler Wetlands throughout Spring without success. The very first bird I spotted at East Lake Shores was this juvenile Killdeer.

I’ll have to admit I have no idea how old this bird is, but it’s clearly a Killdeer and when it bent over to eat

the lack of tail feathers made it clear it wasn’t an adult.

The fact that it, and its sibling, were out foraging by themselves suggests it might have hatched a while ago, but Killdeer are precocial and start foraging for themselves right after they’re born.

Although it was a little concerning that no parent was nearby, clearly the babies’ best defense was their natural camouflage.

I’d been photographing the first Killdeer for nearly ten minutes before I saw its sibling. If it hadn’t moved I wouldn’t have seen it.

Hard to believe these little guys will shortly look like this:

Another Colorado Outing

Grandpa got one more family outing in Colorado, this time a level one around several lakes at Pella Crossing. Despite the heat, I was determined to take my new camera and birding lens. Luckily after nearly a week, my blood oxygen was finally beginning to return to normal.

Although we didn’t see a lot of birds, I was glad that Sydney spotted this Osprey diving into the lake and that I was able to get a shot of it returning to its nest with its catch.

I’m sure Jen was glad to see this While Pelican, probably her favorite bird.

A pair of vultures

even checked us, or the nearby parachutists, out. It’s the first time I can remember seeing vultures in Colorado.