Clear Creek Valley Park, S. Adams County, Colorado. May 25, 2022

                            Avocet feeding. Clear Creek Valley Park. May 4, 2018

The photo above is three years old. I am beginning to get out and about a bit more, now two months after knee replacement surgery. Still a ways to go; I am starting to walk a little better, but slowly, not very far and with a cane. And I am tired after what is more a stroll than a brisk walk. I still don’t carry a camera so while I did some avocets on today’s outing, the one in this photo is not one of them.

Anyhow…

A sunny day at the tail end of a cold spell here in Denver. Temperature was 65 degrees with 10 mph winds from the north. Because of the winds it felt colder and I wore a jacket.

Usually this time of year the bird life in the pond is extensive and active; today less so. Still over the 45 minutes from 11:30 am to 12:15 pm there was enough to keep me busy and entertained. The short list included:

• both a great white and great blue heron fishing
• some avocets, about a dozen
• a pelican sunning itself on a dry island in the middle of the main pond (there are five ponds there). Although I have seen pelicans throughout the Denver metro area over the years, not so at Clear Creek Valley Park in S. Adams County until today
• a snowy egret
• a few mallards and the ever present ubiquitous Canada geese, again in modest numbers
• a muskrat making its way across the pond from east to west
• a half dozen turtles, some sunning themselves on the sand bars, others swimming in the nearby waters.

That great variety of ducks that often found shelter and sustenance at Clear Creek Valley past years was missing other than a few mallards and one lonely cormorant.

Still an enjoyable outing.