Birds of Cherry Creek

Snowy Egret getting his plumage up....

 

This morning I went for a birdwalk alond Cherry Creek, near where I live, by the Cherry Creek Country Club.  It was a pretty good morning for birding! To start you off, here's a video (embedded below) of two Snowy Egrets. I think it's worth watching the whole way through- first the Egret nabs some breakfast out of the creek, then gets fiesty with the other Egret. 

 

 

 

Besides the Egrets, there were plenty of little birds - doves, finches, a downy woodpecker, some hummingbirds, sparrows, flickers, and swallows, and plenty of mallards.  

One cool bird to spot was the Spotted Sandpiper. These birds are so little! Much smaller than I expected from the pictures in field guides. This guy was bopping along the sandy bank of the creek. The butt bobbles up and down as it walks. Adorable. 

I kept on farther down the creek than I usually do, and I discovered a secret, yet somehow well maintained and accessible, forest glen.  Okay, it's probably not secret since the city built a bridge to get to it, but there were definitely no people there and it was kind of magical. 

In the secret glen I saw a giant catfish in the water! Like, 2-foot! I was looking out for the Great Blue Heron that haunts the Creek, but I did not see it today. However, I did see a hawk cooling its butt in the creek! Yup, just sitting there in the water! 

I feel sure this is a Cooper's Hawk, but the eye color is throwing me off, because the pics in my app of a Cooper's have red eyes. But I think that might be an indication of the bird's age rather than species, so let's assume it's a younger Cooper's Hawk and not a Sharp-Shined, which looks almost the same but isn't expected to be seen around here right now. 

Just before this pic, the hawk was actually sitting in the water.

Let me know when you want to come birding with me!