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Walking on the tundra today I heard a whistling noise and stopped, thinking it was perhaps a young Yellow-bellied Marmot. I scanned the rock outcrops 30 yards away and then looked again at some closer rock piles, but could not find anything despite continuing the hear the calls. I thought; “those sound very close” and looked down and saw that I was standing 4 feet away from this mama White-tailed Ptarmigan. She ignored me and watched her chicks as they ran around, frequently coming back to Mom to snuggle under her.

This female Great Blue Heron got up from her nest on the island in Tabor Lake, flew to the trail beside me and carefully picked up a stick from a bush, flew back and placed it on her nest. Meanwhile, the male stood beside the nest among sleeping Northern Shovlers.

Male. This male and a female were chasing each other up the river and across the lake. The male landed on this tree overhanging the lake and made quiet rattles and was soon joined by the female, who responded with quiet rattles of her own.

The temperature was in the low 50F, with gusty winds to 20 mph, with filtered sunlight through a high overcast. This observation was made 4 hours and 46 minutes after sunrise into the first full day of Spring. A great way to start the Butterfly season!

Male. Thanks to @jimjohnson for your ID on this Emerald two days ago. Thanks to @rahopko for coming to confirm this and finding more including mating pairs. Thanks for Bill Prather for coming and netting the male in the first two photos and IDing more flying around. Bill told me that this is the first documented Plains Emerald in Colorado in over a hundred and twenty years. The third photo is of a mating pair

Female. Thanks to @rahopko for coming to confirm this and finding this female. Thanks to Bill Prather for coming and netting a male and for IDing more flying around. Bill told me that this is the first documented Plains Emerald in Colorado in over a hundred and twenty years.