My husband and I went for a walk along the creek this morning. As we arrived, we ran into an acquaintance of our — Anne the National Geographic Photographer — she’s had a photo published in a National Geographic bird book, and gets to claim the moniker.

Anne has earned her place in National Geographic — she knows her birds and her photos are stunning (Naturally Jax). She walks the trail along the creek every day, rain or shine or bitter cold. We were really glad to run into her, because there were two birds we hadn’t seen in months — the American dipper (Dipper Is Back) and the Great Horned Owls (Mama Owl Back On Her Nest). I knew that Anne could help us find them.

As we walked the trail along the creek, we saw these charming little ice cubes hanging from willow branches that were dangling in the stream. Interestingly, the Front Range of Colorado — the area west of Denver — didn’t get hit with the deep cold and heavy snow that the eastern part of the country did this week. We got down to near 0o F several days, and had an inch of snow. Evidently these conditions raised the water level in the creeks, then froze some of it onto the dangling willow branches. The water level dropped over the last day, leaving behind what Ann called “ice bells”. I love her name for them.

We walked the most likely location for the dipper twice before Anne saw it. I whipped my camera up and started pressing the shutter release. Dark blurry images were taken. Anne said “Why don’t you move to your left so the light will hit the front of the bird?” I moved, and got these shots. Much better.

Still, it was an overcast day when we were walking, and we were under a bridge. There just wasn’t much light to be had. We moved on down the creek, looking for the Great Horned Owl family that has this territory.

My kids recently taught me the term “Resting Bitch Face”. It means to look at somebody with a little disdain, a “don’t mess with me” look. Turns out birds are really good at Resting Bitch Face. This robin certainly had it down.

The robin didn’t spend a lot of time ignoring us, it was too focused on getting the last berry from the bush.

No owls. A lot of ducks though — mallards and these ring-necked ducks (you can’t see the ring on it’s neck unless the duck is stretched out. Usually, you know, dead. Two rings on the male’s bill though, and one on the female’s, are close enough that I can remember the name.)

Anne showed us a little backwater where ducks hang out when they aren’t foraging. These are sleeping gadwalls, but we saw several widgeons, and ring-necked, and mallards, of course.

Then Anne pointed to a tree across the creek and said that Papa Great Horned Owl often perched there. Sure enough, there he was, sleeping on a thick branch. Anne said that the nest was further back, among some trees, and was impossible to get close enough to to see the female. But based on behavior, Anne was sure she was brooding some eggs. So the owls are still in the neighborhood. But it’s going to be much harder to follow their progress this year. At least we know where to look for them.