Nature Walks – Magpies, Turtles and More

In my little neck of the woods, I have a wide variety of landscapes all in one, which means there is a wide variety of wildlife as well.  I have the lakes, which gives us all the ducks, geese, and various other aquatic birds, turtles and fish.  After the 4th lake, depending on what direction we go, we either venture into the open space, giving us the prairie dogs and non-aquatic birds or back around through the marshy areas and more lakes.  The open space flows directly into open “prairie land”, that then takes us into the creeks, giving us more ducks and geese.  And all of this is right in my backyard too.  All of this makes it sound like we live out in the “whoop whoops” as my dad used to say, but we are really right off a major street that is a heavily traveled route, taking people north and south.

Today, I give you some of the other critters that also call our beautiful area home.

The Magpies.  Magpies are seen everywhere here in Colorado.  I think they are just so beautiful.  They are beautiful scavengers.

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I have seen two types of turtles in our lakes.  We have seen more turtles this year than ever before.  Yesterday, I saw at least 5.  In years past, we were lucky to see 5 all season.

This is the smaller of our two turtles.  It is a red-eared slider.

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Our other turtle is a common snapping turtle.  He is a lot larger than the red-eared slider.  Our snapping turtles seem to be a lot more camera shy too.  I have had a difficult time getting good shots of our snapping turtles.  Most of the time, just as I am about ready to click the camera, they dive deeper underwater, making it very difficult to get good shots.  But every now and then I get lucky.

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And of course we have tons of rabbits and squirrels too.  Although, this year I haven’t seen near as many rabbits as usual.  I haven’t seen any of the baby bunnies this year either.  The tiny babies are so darn cute.  We used to have a nest right under our house, so we would see the babies all the time, but once we had our cement and paths redone, we lost that nest.

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We have lots of squirrels too.  They love driving the dogs nuts.

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Stay safe and stay well Everyone.  ‘Til next time.

Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I have worked in the restaurant and catering industry for over 35 years. I attended 2 culinary schools in Southern California, and have a degree in culinary arts from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, as well as a few other degrees in other areas. I love to cook and I love to feed people.

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