Slow Days - Longer Afternoons

I don't think Thursday is ever going to get here! Between waiting for all my deliveries to arrive, the NCAA Basketball Tournament to begin, and my pager rotation to be over I think the slowing of time is actually making an audible screech that can be heard across the universe. Well, maybe not, but I do feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. Fortunately when time slows down it allows more time for getting outside, and with the extension of evening daylight that let me get a nice five mile walk in along the South Platte River. I was back in the area looking for the Long-tailed Duck, but didn't have any luck in that pursuit.

The fantastic part about that area is that there is a great deal of water around. I scanned four reservoirs and a good stretch of the river, and there are at least three additional larger reservoirs in the area. While that is great for seeing a bunch of wildlife, it makes the prospects of finding any single individual a bit longer than I would normally like.

But, the day was beautiful, and I saw 30 fairly common species - including my first Western Grebes of the year. The Killdeer up top was in an abusive mood - screaming and yelling at me as I walked past. Can't really blame it though, the lake that it has had fenced off for its own use for four months just reopened yesterday for fishing. There were lots of Northern Shovelers, American Coot, and Green-Winged Teal groups along the actual river. The Green-winged Teal, (male immediately above and Female two up), were showing off their namesake wing patches.

A Pied-billed Grebe shared a stretch of the river with these Coot, all riding the current to better fishing grounds I guess. As with most beautiful weather these days are all falling at the beginning of the week. Friday, a day I have off, it is forecast to snow!