Cherry Creek State Park

After an unfortunate false start trying to shoot at Cherry Creek State Park, I made another attempt on New Year's Day. This time, I remembered to take my batteries out of their chargers and put them back in their cameras. So that alone put me ahead of where I'd been two days earlier.

I arrived early enough to drive around and do some decent scouting well before the sunrise.  Early enough to stop and shoot this desolate scene near the West Shades ...

... then get back in my car and drive to the Lake Loop for this view.

Once the sun was up, wildlife became the focus.  I was hoping for coyotes, and followed a group of three with several other photographers for a while.  But they never got within range for a decent shot.  This red-tailed hawk, however, did allow me to approach close enough for a solid image.

As the morning grew warmer -- which essentially meant the temperatures got into the high single digits -- the prairie dogs began to emerge.

This fellow eventually got brave enough to creep a couple of feet from his hole.  I'm pretty sure all it took for him to immediately scurry back was me sneezing.

A nice lady who was part of a group doing a Christmas Bird Count told me there was a hooded merganser over by the marina.  That was easily the most interesting lead I'd had, so I headed there.  Didn't see a merganser, but I did get plenty of opportunities to shoot Canada Geese in flight which was good preparation for heading to Bosque del Apache the following day.  I had acceptable efforts with one goose ...

... two goose ...

... three goose ...

... and four goose!  Nothing as strong with five geese, sadly.  All streaks have to end sometime.

This goose hissed at me every time I walked by.  I wonder if whatever happened to his wing was a factor.  Perhaps a little slow to take flight when a coyote came by?  Not that geese are the best-tempered creatures under any circumstances.  But I still felt a little bad for him.

And with that, my time shooting in Colorado had come to an end.  I'd managed to squeeze in two state parks, a national park, a national wildlife refuge, and two other stops in 72 hours.  Definitely a whirlwind tour!