Bald Eagles on Barr Lake

Barr Lake State park is an amazing place to hike or bird watch. And while mid-November may not be the best time for birds, it is definitely a good time for a hike. An easy hike, or more challenging one. We weren't sure what we would find there on this chilly Sunday morning. But as soon as we got out of the car, we knew that we had come at the right time... Because high in the sky, a huge flock of birds were making some intricate patterns but we weren't sure what kind of the birds they were...

 

Believe it or not, they were pelicans! I have never seen so many of these birds at once. Once I saw about a dozen and it looked like a lot... but today there were at least 50 birds circling above us and it was just amazing...

We enjoyed watching the pelicans, and then walked down to the lake. But first, we stopped to look at the prairie dogs, funny little creatures that live in the fields around the lake.

Have you ever seen praying prairie dogs? We've never seen either, until today :)

It would be easy to spend hours watching these swift small mammals running around, but we had some other plans for this day, so we walked away and reached the lake... Just to find out that the water level was very (I mean it... VERY) low. It was really crazy, but it gave us a good opportunity to walk along the shoreline about 5 feet below the surface of the lake when the lake is full ;) And soon we spotted the birds we were looking for... 5 Bald Eagles perched on the branches (can you find them?) and we headed towards them.

There they were... gorgeous birds resting on the branches of the cottonwood trees.

As we were getting close, one adult took off and flew right over our heads... a beautiful bird, isn't it?

We walked along the water and looked at the leafless trees far from where we were... We couldn't believe that usually we would stay behind them... but today we were on the other side of the shoreline and really enjoyed it...

Shortly we found one of three juvenile eagles sitting on the branch. While maturing, they wear darker colors and look quite different, even though they are the same size as the adult birds...

An eagle in flight is an amazing thing to watch, something that you will never forget...

Since we were technically walking on the bottom of the lake... on the bed that is usually deep under the water, we found a lot of fish carcasses... Probably eaten by the same bald eagles we were following...

The eagles were constantly moving, finding more comfortable branches to perch on than before, so we had some good opportunities to see them both in flight and at rest...

It was a beautiful day for a walk and bird watching. And we realized that it was an unusual opportunity to walk on the other side of the trees where eagles nest... Not sure if we would be able to do it again...

At some point we decided to turn around and return following the trail, so we walked toward the trees. The bottom of the lake here was not sandy, but rather muddy... and stamped with tracks of hundreds of birds... To be honest, we did not expect to see anything like this :) .

Can you imagine that all this is usually filled with water?

The lake seemed small and distant. When we looked down from the trail, we realized how far the water had moved to the center and how different it was from any other time when we were there... 

On our way back to the car we witnessed a small falcon attacking a large one. Have no idea what the bigger bird did to the smaller one, but it was actually defeated and the small falcon made a couple circles before disappearing somewhere. It was another interesting scene to watch... 

Just to give you an idea of where we walked today... Here is the track recorded by a GPS device and put on the map... And yes, we were walking... not swimming :)

Before returning home, we stop by the Botanic Garden to look at some fall leaves... Even though we enjoyed watching the birds, the trees around Barr Lake were bare and we wanted some colors... And... we got some :)

The pictures were taken on November 16-17, 2024.