As a means of distraction from the sad loss of my dog yesterday I went out for a drive and find this kingfisher and coot. Not much else happening today since the weather is warmer and there is more open water for the birds. This is a nice shot of the kingfisher who would not tolerate me coming any closer even though I was in my portable hide aka my car!

It's a long story but I have been keeping a casual eye out for red foxes for a long time and the more you look sometimes the less you see! They used to be common in our garden but have not been seen for some time, they are often out when there is little light and they are hard to film. Today I was filming birds and met up with a photographer friend, Vic, who said that there was a place nearby where people were putting food out for the foxes. I thought this was good so we headed there to see what we could see, well of course nothing was happening so I took off. Suddenly in town I saw a fox so pulled over and started filming and was pleased to get some shots. Here is one of the fox scent marking, just feet from where I stood, others are in the Gallery/Nature/Fauna section. Seems like I need to look for foxes in town and coyotes out of town!

In the park today (see notes below) we also came across a Menage-a-Trois of 3 coyotes, one looked like it was limping. I wish they'd reintroduce wolves!

Amazing clouds over the mountains today, my theory is that high altitude ice crystals cause the rainbow effect but I need to do my research and figure out the proper name.

In Rocky Mountain National Park, very occasionally you might catch a glimpse of a rare squirrel called the Abert's Squirrel, today I got lucky and found one and was able to get this shot from the car.

I took a few hours today and headed to the flat land east of here, following advice from the local bird experts. I drove gravel tracks and found an amazing variety of birds as well as a group of around a hundred pronghorns. Apart from prairie falcons, rough-legged hawks, ferruginous hawks, kestrels and red tails I was especially pleased to find a golden eagle and get a few shots. You can see more in the Gallery/Nature/Avian and Fauna sections. Enjoy.

I spent some time in the car watching ducks today and got some shots of shovelers, wigeon and a wood duck, and tried a couple of times to get close to belted kingfishers with no luck. So I got tired and gave up and then decided to go back so did a U turn and went back for another go. This time I did get lucky, either the kingfisher had got used to me or was hungry enough to ignore me I don't know but it let me get close in the car. I took a lot of shots while it sat on the branch and then after my arms were aching from holding the camera he dived for a fish which he caught! This was the moment I was waiting for and  I had set the camera to a fast speed and fixed focus but I was still amazed that I got a frame with a great shot of him diving. This is the best I have achieved so far. A good day.

I watched this shoveler duck for a while and noticed that after preening for a bit he would put his beak in the water and then shake off the drops before continuing preening. When he did this there was a shower of water droplets shining in the sunlight. Later I found another duck which I thought was a green winged teal but after much study found was a gadwall. You can see this and more bird photos in Gallery/Nature/Avian.

Yet again we are honoured to have a great horned owl gracing our house. Must be a lucky sign.