Can't believe its been a week

Well, almost a week anyway. Since the last time I wrote, when the temps had been pushing seventy, Colorado and most of the rest of the nation has taken a turn in the deep freeze. I have some fun experiences and pictures to share from last weekend and the week in a few upcoming posts. In the meantime here are some shots from yesterday, when the temps had returned to near zero. With no wind to take notice of and clear blue skies it was certainly bearable, and almost pleasant to be out in.


I had returned to the offices of the Boulder County Open Space and Mountain Parks, to see if I could relocate the Rough-legged Hawk I had seen last week. The fence lined drive where it had been seen previously had a new sight, the American Kestrel, (above), who was doing a bit of snacking in the cold.


I left, and drove south along Cherryvale Road. Another birder, Bill Schmoker, had gotten some incredible shots over the weekend, and had mentioned that the bird had been hunting along the ditch. I had seen his shots from my phone while at a basketball game at the University of Colorado the night before, and was inspired to try my luck again.


I was glad to get another chance at this cool bird, and hope it remains a bit longer so I can have another chance. These couple of shots were a few of a handful that I salvaged out of several hundred disappointments. As I was looking through yesterday's shots I realised that the dial on my eyepiece adapter had been bumped off a notch, and in the cold air I hadn't noticed that I was shooting everything blurry. Frustrating, but one of the reasons to take lots of shots - and to dial in the focus when manually focusing. These and a couple of others would have normally been the throw-aways, but they left me with a few memories of a bright, cold, beautiful winter day, and the bird that got me out in it!