More Daylight!

Today is the first day of Daylight Savings Time which is something I often forget about over the long dreary winter. This day used to not mean much to me other than trying to remember to readjust every clock in the house. But now the first thing that comes to mind regarding DST is that very soon I will be able to sneak in a hike around the park after work! Though yesterday was the first day in a long time above freezing, much of the duck pond on the southwest corner of the park is still frozen over. It was fully sunny today with barely a cloud in the sky and so having a look at the Mallards is always fun. There were slightly more of them today in the water and on top of the ice but there was one drake that really stood out. No matter which direction he was facing, his head looked blue instead of the normal green! I thought for sure it had to be the angle but as I watched him, he really looked different from the others. Had there not been others around it might not have been so obvious but when he was side by side with the other drakes it was pretty apparent. I've never seen such a pretty Mallard before. And the hens seemed to know it too. I like that this photo kind of implies that he was being favored over the other "green heads" in the background. I'll have to keep an eye out for this guy in the future and see if he sticks around. I took quite a few photos later on but it wasn't until I was until the northwest side that I saw something of real interest. I heard a fairly loud chattering above me in the trees and when I looked up, a little face was peering out of a hole in the tree. It was a Flying Squirrel! I've only seen these at night before up in northern Minnesota, and never before in Palmer Lake Park! Right in front of me in broad daylight, the little Flying Squirrel came out of the hole and was immediately followed by a second one!I could hardly believe it. The first one proceeded to launch himself to the next tree over, about 6 or 7 feet away. I was surprised that he barely seemed to lose any altitude and almost appeared to be on a string. Their gliding abilities are truly amazing. He continued to leap from tree to tree, followed by the other one behind him. I hadn't really anticipated that behavior and I wasn't that fast on the draw with my camera. I did get a couple of bad photos of one crawling up one of the other trees but by now they were further away. I kind of chuckled to myself that maybe Daylight Savings Time had confused the Flying Squirrels as to what time it was seeing as how they're mostly nocturnal mammals. I'm assuming they're both living in the hole in the tree and it might be neat to see them nest here and have babies in the future. Not long after this I had two Red-tailed Hawks come soaring over the fields near 73rd Avenue. I positioned myself as steady as I could and snapped a bunch of shots because I have such a hard time getting birds in flight. Luckily they weren't moving all that fast but rather just kind of hovering and at least one photo turned out. It's rare when I can get a good look at Red-tailed Hawks so I was quite happy with this shot. Other birds spotted today included; Dark-eyed Junco, Great Horned Owl, Red-bellied Woopecker, Downy Woodpecker and House Finch.