​​In The Shadow of Longs Peak

Big Thompson Ponds State Wildlife Area

29 November 2020
Directions:
From Longmont, north on 287 to 14th Street Loveland.  This turns into Colorado 402.  Take this east, go over I24 then north on the Frontage Road.  As you approach the a housing development on the east side of the road, there is a left hand turn into a single lane underpass.  Take that (check first for oncoming traffic.  Turn north into the SWA.  
Overview:
At this time of year, the whole place seemed a bit scruffy with a wildness about it and the coloring is a very monochromatic brown.  Not a well-kept trail and park which is what I think I was expecting.  In a nutshell, it feels chaotic!  I am surprised I feel this way.

There was an article I read years ago in one of those Science for the layman magazine that talks about how there are places in the African outback that look like an English Garden and the author proposed that we have been modifying our environment to be more visually pleasing from the get-go.

Back to Big Thompson Ponds.  Trees and brush are everywhere and a few beaten paths.  If I were to draw or paint, my first inclination would be to remove all this scruffy detail. 

There were tons of birds though most I could not get a look at.  However, I did recognize a robin with its red breast and long yellow beak.  And another robin looking bird with a black beak.  And a waxwing (first time seeing an identifying that!).  There was another smaller bird with a yellowish breast and somewhat of a tufted head.