In my quest to get us out of the house and doing fun stuff...
I dragged us out of bed at silly o'clock this morning, and we wandered over to Cougar Park, which is supposedly one of the best places in Salt Lake County for seeing Burrowing Owls.
This is when we found out that Cougar Park is really only open (as in, you can go in and wander about) from October to February.
Yeah, would have been nice to know that, you know, before we went.
But it was small enough that we walked around the perimeter. I got some pretty butterfly pix, a fairly nice shot of a Horned Lark, and some flowers and bugs.
Then we headed south to the Mehraban Wetlands, which is a hidden treasure in the Draper/Riverton area. As in, don't blink, or you'll totally miss the entrance to the thing. Apparently they had a fire recently, as the people living around the park had melted vinyl fences, and the trees were blackened.
However...
California Quail (which I fail at shooting. Miserably). Dragonflies. Great Blue Herons. Scads and scads of ducks. A juvenile Double-Crested Cormorant. And SHADE. Lovely, cool SHADE.
Great Blue Heron:
Tiger Swallowtail:
Dragonfly:
Horned Lark:
More photos here.
This is when we found out that Cougar Park is really only open (as in, you can go in and wander about) from October to February.
Yeah, would have been nice to know that, you know, before we went.
But it was small enough that we walked around the perimeter. I got some pretty butterfly pix, a fairly nice shot of a Horned Lark, and some flowers and bugs.
Then we headed south to the Mehraban Wetlands, which is a hidden treasure in the Draper/Riverton area. As in, don't blink, or you'll totally miss the entrance to the thing. Apparently they had a fire recently, as the people living around the park had melted vinyl fences, and the trees were blackened.
However...
California Quail (which I fail at shooting. Miserably). Dragonflies. Great Blue Herons. Scads and scads of ducks. A juvenile Double-Crested Cormorant. And SHADE. Lovely, cool SHADE.
Great Blue Heron:
Tiger Swallowtail:
Dragonfly:
Horned Lark:
More photos here.