More Snow with bird tracks

It snowed again last night! Things that were starting to turn green are now all white again!

Zoo Bird

In memory of my friend Andi who was my photo buddy, we went to the zoo once and the Denver Botanic Gardens many times for flower pictures! This bird's top knot reminds me of a flower at the gardens I have taken pictures of - many times! Remembering!

morning susnrise

I enjoyed the soft pastel colors in this picture and the geese flying. They really were in a 'V' formation as they went by, the kaleidoscope program made it into a tighter 'V'.

Swallows2

Here they are in a regular shot

Swallows

On my last trip to the gardens there were several swallows sitting on some roof trusses. They were just chirping away and they made an interesting pattern - sort of like birds on a wire.

Temporary Fairy garden

A reminder Fairy Gardens are temporary constructions. In this basket garden I discovered the Flower Fairies of Cicely Mary Barker have been translated into 3-D versions about 3 to 5 inches tall.  Above is Buttercup, with a real pansy, a log with glass butterfly and a blue bird.  I put the garden out under the apple tree only to discover the next day that the squirrels like them too.  For some reason the little log the butterfly was on disappeared - the tail of the bird was bitten off and I had attempted to start a couple avocado seeds in a nearby pot, only to discover the squirrels took bites out of them as well.  Fortunately they don't like plastic as the buttercup fairy is still intact.

Hooded Eagle

As the handlers were getting ready to move the eagle they put his hood on, eagle is perched on the handler's gauntlet.  The man had to use both hands to hold the eagle in the air - he's a heavy bird, with very powerful talons.

Double Eagle

Double eagle heads.  This was the largest raptor we got to take pictures of.  He really does have an intense stare. The yellow in the middle is part of his talons.

Screech Owl

This tiny little guy is the  screech owl in my previous mandala.

Yoda

When I first made this mandala, I thought it looked like Yoda,  It really is a tiny screech owl with an intense stare.

peregrine original photo

Peregrine flapping its wings.  Imagine where the triangle is I took from this picture to make the earlier Mandala

Peregrine Falcon different view

The Peregrine posed for us. I liked this one because his talons make up the yellow in the middle. The star that formed was from a stray piece of grass. 

Great Horned Owl

Have always loved the face of the great horned owl.

They look so stern! We had a breeze the day of the shoot so his 'horn' feathers are ruffled.

Barn Owl

Bran owls have such an interesting face.  This one they had sitting in a tree which you can see as the 'V' shape between faces. I liked the speckles on their feathers. There were 6 raptors at this photo shoot, to include 3 owls.

Red Tailed Hawk

Bottom side of the bird. Outer circle is the tail feathers of a red tailed Hawk, his talons and in the center is his breast feathers.

Peregrine Falcon

This one is a bit hard to read at first.  I had an opportunity to photograph some raptors earlier in the fall, above is a peregrine falcon flexing his wings, blurred by motion.

Pink Flamingos

This one might be a little hard to read at first - I took it on the fly as we were leaving Jerome, AZ, the mining town on the side of a hill.  They are a group of pink Flamingos wearing hats with sunflowers decorating a mail box.  They were just cute and different!

red and green feathers

A different kind of red and green.  These are the feathers of a tropical bird we saw in San Diego.  The texture is different from plant material in the earlier cross shapes and the circle has a different color feather as contrast. 

humming bird

On the feeder a different view. 

Hummingbirds

Over the 4th of July we had lots of humming birds at the feeder in the mountains.  There were 5 birds in the original picture, not all quite visible.   I liked the division of 4 (on the 4th).