Thursday, June 30, 2011

A Day in the Park

Yesterday was the hottest day of the summer so far. Probably 95+, yet I met with friends from work whom I haven't seen in more than a month since school ended. We decided to have lunch at Glenmere Park in Greeley, one of Greeley's little treasures, close to the university. Of course I took my camera and my telephoto lens. The photos are fair, a bit over exposed, but it was exciting to see the water fowl and photograph them. I need more practice, admittedly.  
The Pavilion 

Cattle Egret: Sports a bit of orange during mating season 
We are not real sure what this bird is. I saw movement and took a picture. Given the location of the bird in the shade underneath the rocks pecking in the water, I am not surprised that the bird is hard to see, and thus hard to identify. We are thinking some sort of Rail, Clapper which is found more in California or a Virginia Rail, which is more wide spread.
Cattle Egret in flight
Snowy Egret

Snow Egret all fluffed up

Carp in the lily pond
Glenmere Park is home to a variety of wildlife: from the carp in the lily pond, the crayfish, bull frogs I heard one), to dragon flies, a variety of ducks and geese, both wild and domestic, and a large variety of song birds and other water fowl. The egrets are nesting. With binoculars we could see a nest of baby cattle egrets being fed by their parents. The egrets were quite active, flying hither and to collecting food to feed their young. I grew up on two different small farms where dad nurtured wild life. He built lakes and ponds, stocking them with a variety of fish, turtles, and bull frogs (oh the stories I could tell about his adventures catching bullfrogs to bring home). He grew water lilies, having at one the largest collection of water lilies in Denver. Yesterday while I walked with my friends around the pond, dripping in sweat, swatting mosquitos, dying of thirst (forgot water), I returned to a piece of my childhood. It was the best day.

9 comments:

  1. Great photographs of the birds and Carp. I don't think I could cope in that heat and no water!!

    Have a great weekend, Jackie in Surrey, UK.

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  2. I especially like the cattle egret in flight. I have a Mac with IPhoto, and I've learned that if a photo of mine is underexposed, it's easy to bring it to the correct exposure. Underexposed is not so good. So I always choose to underexpose if I'm having trouble getting the correct exposures in the camera. I don't do much to my photos after the shot, but I will lighten it a little to bring it back to what my eye saw in nature.

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  3. I love days like these too, and I like the photo's you took as well. Thanks for sharing, so glad that you had a wonderful day at the park with friends... Very nice.

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  4. I would have totally enjoyed having a lunch here. Awesome shots. We are supposed to be in the 90's today...Yesterday was pretty hot here as well. I wouldn't mind it so much but we don't have air in our log cabin here...sigh...

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  5. It's always interesting to see what species of birds other bloggers have in their areas.

    That looks like a beautiful park.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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  6. Hi Ann!
    It sounds like a great outing! Our kids went on field trips to a lovely lily garden just a short walk from their school.

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  7. The egret in flight is amazing. Thanks for sharing.♥♫

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  8. So cool to go around and relax like that, that park looks very fun.

    Heat is turning up here too, not nice

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  9. I have actually been to that park. We took our family pictures there last fall. It has beautiful trees.
    Happy Fourth!

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