All With The Family

The Matthew-Reeser's Bird Sanctuary

Another October flew by much too quickly. I was joined by my dear friend Kathie and family members for the Big Event in Estes Park, Colorado.

Mountain Chickadee

While there, we celebrated several days of birding, shopping and exploration.

Estes Park is a smaller town situated at the borders of the majestic Rocky Mountain National Park.

My sister and her daughter at Rocky Mountain National Park

While we were there, we soaked up as much wilderness as we could.

Kathie and Jared watch the children climb the now rocky Alluvial Fan

At our cabins, we created a bird sanctuary.  My family would laugh at us from their cabin patio.  Why?  Well, Ms. Kathie, Micheal and myself picked up a lot of bird seed and wood.  We'd sit around the fireplace and watch birds.  We had hundreds of them come and visit our cabin.  And all we had to do was just sit and watch them from the living room window:)

Black-billed Magpie

The evenings were wonderful.  Everyone sat around the large outdoor ramada sharing stories and drinks together.

As is tradition, my family puts together a dance for the big day.  Our wonderful dance was a mix of popular science fiction movie tunes and finished off with a childhood favorite, "Xanadu!"

Pic courtesy of Kathie Brown.  Awesome shot of everyone!

At times it was windy. Or snowy.  Or rainy.  But always COLD!

A cold Steller's Jay

We birded one of my favorite spots in Estes Park which happens to be near their golf course.  

Clifford goes on assignment for a class project

 The locale is known as the Matthew-Reeser's Bird Sanctuary.  Most of the bird life is found along a wooded corridor next to a fast moving stream.  I suspected American Dippers hung out at this location, but I had "dipped" several times on this bird in June.  Persistence(and timing) paid off. 

Classic American Dipper shot

And it wasn't just a far away glance.  Both, Kathie and myself, were able to watch two of these birds nearby our trail.

And along the way, we stopped looking at the birds and just enjoyed family and fall.

But then a Steller's Jay would steal the show:)

Here is a video of our American Dipper encounter.  If you are a lover of everything wildlife, I highly recommend Estes Park.  More to come from this amazing locale.......