South Platte Park: December 2012

Looking for a little fresh air and exercise on this Christmas Eve brought me back to South Platte Park, accompanied by Zak and Danelle's brother's family -- him, his wife and three sons. We decided to head south towards the lakes from the parking lot and see what we could see.

What we saw on the river was a lot of waterfowl -- Mallards, Wood Ducks, Canada Geese and Mergansers among them.  Most as usual were a little too skittish to sit still enough for pictures in range of my lens.  But I was able to at least get a decent shot of this female Barrow's Goldeneye.

I'd seen reports of adult Bald Eagles on the west side of Eaglewatch Lake recently.  Sure enough, my sister-in-law Joanne spotted one.  He let me creep fairly close, but as I shifted to the right to try and get a view without a branch dissecting his head he flew off.

A Great Blue Heron that had flown off as we approached on our walk up the river decided to be more accommodating as we came back down, letting me get right up to the opposite shore to capture a solid shot.

One last little surprise as we prepared to get back in the car -- an American Kestrel on the same set of trees by the Carson Nature Center where I'd seen a young Northern Flicker a couple of months earlier.

A nice stretch of the legs, with some nice spottings as usual to make the visit a memorable one!