Trip Day Nine

I am slowly wading through editing all of the images from my trip to Colorado and Wyoming. Day nine found me sleeping in after two days of photographing up in Rocky Mountain National Park. When I did finally arise I wandered out to give the Blue Jays another try in the backyard blind at Eric's mother in law's house in Loveland, Colorado. I managed to create one good image of both a Jay and of a tattered Grackle. I have a great story about Grackles. When I was about five or six my Dad convinced me that if I put salt on a Grackles tail they wouldn't be able to fly and I would be able to easily catch one. The very next morning found me hiding behind a section of wooden fence. I had a salt shaker in hand watching a pile of crumbs I had placed on the other side. I'm not sure how long I waited but a Grackle finally arrived and I dashed out wildly flinging salt only to watch the Grackle fly off. You had to really watch my Dad he came up with some whoppers. After a late breakfast I helped Eric put up the storm windows around the house. We then went up and location scouted for an image he wants to make of Devil's Backbone in the future. On the trip back we stopped for a nice hike along the Big Thompson River above Taft Road. I spent many, many hours here as a kid swimming, fishing and hunting this stretch of river. I was hoping to see a moose or some elk but none appeared for us. All I managed to photograph was a bumblebee and a Red Fox Squirrel. Afterwards we went up to North Park and photographed the Canadian Geese swimming in the reflected light of the golden yellow Cottonwood Trees. It was a pretty nice relaxing day. Thank you Lord for the good memories. chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400L IS lens.