Our visit to Colorado to see Tyson and his family was a little more chaotic than in past years because both Sidney and Zoe are working during the summer to make money for college. In essence, it meant that we were seldom together at the same time. What wasn’t abnormal, though, was my intent to walk every day to become accustomed to the high altitude. Luckily, there is East Lake 3 Park and Nature Preserve in Thornton just a few miles away from their home where Leslie and I walked on our second day in Broomfield.
The Nature Preserve is surrounded by homes and, for the most part, the birds we see there are the birds we often see, like this Red-Shafted Flicker that greeted us a few yards from the entrance,
this Red-Winged Blackbird,
this Kestrel,
or this Long-Tailed Grackle.
The one bird I seldom see, particularly this year, is the American Avocet.
When we were here last year we saw a mother with chicks, but we didn’t see any chicks this year, just two Avocets that appeared to be heading toward each other but walked right past each other as if they were only interested in where there next meal was coming from.
This time the only babies we saw were Prairie Dog pups.
In past years, this three-mile, nearly flat walk has seemed relatively easy, but this time, despite numerous stops to get pictures, both Leslie and I struggled in the last quarter mile. Thank goodness we were distracted from our tiredness by the beauty we both find here.