There were geese and other water fowl engaged in many activities on both of my hikes at the Fountain Creek Nature Center Trails.

On the first stroll they kept flying over us.

I was able to get one good picture of them flying. I am still learning this camera and should have had it on a different setting to capture more images quickly. Still it was an amazing feeling to stand under these magnificent creatures as they flew around us on this trail.

These were Canadian Geese and they were swimming singly or in pairs in the blue water. The graceful necks and distinctive markings had me watching them for many minutes as they approached the shore.

Some were leaving trails behind in the water that I also tried to capture.

Reflections of these lovely swimmers and the trees made for some wonderful abstract images that I can see using in a book someday soon.

I have no idea the name of the water fowl in the below picture. If anyone can identify him, please leave a comment with his name for me.

And these are just small portions of the images with the birds in them. The reflections in the water were very beautiful, but here I am talking about the water fowl seen in this wonderful wetland area, so wanted to make sure they were the focal point of these images shared here.

And then there was the goose taking advantage of the nesting boxes.

She was busy cleaning it out in preparation of laying eggs soon. It was very fun watching her tossing out old nest material, then sitting quietly looking at her handiwork. I am sure I spent at least 5 minutes just watching this hardworking goose. And the next visit we saw another one in a different nesting box  just quietly and calmly sitting in contemplation of the world around her.

Mallard Ducks were seen in the large pond, but also in the waterway that we walked along on my second visit to this area.

The iridescent colors of the feathers on the necks of these ducks was very intense in the sunshine. The handsome fellow on the right gave us quite a show swimming in and our of some branches, then turning around and swimming back towards us. Very fun to watch.

In the creek area, there were different Mallard Ducks that would swim against the current, then turn around and ride back down for what looked like an amusement ride concept. I watched this numerous times and wanted to join in the fun, but that wasn’t feasible.

Looking up in the trees, we could see many different types of nests. And there was one that was close to the path that I was able to get a close up photo of among red branches.

This got us to thinking about the variety of birds that were in the area. 

We were sure there were many more that we hadn’t seen, and perhaps hadn’t returned from their winter migration.

We were lucky enough to see a few Robins and an unknown small bird out on an island in the pond.

This handsome Red-winged Blackbird caught our attention with a song. He joyfully sang to us for quite some time. Or perhaps he was showing off his voice to attract a mate.

We continued along the trail and enjoyed this intriguing landscape that was so different from our mountain hikes.