Valentines birding at dusk

Decided to go birding after work,it was Valentines day and had plans to just go home and make loaded baked potatoes and watch some of season 3 of Special Forces but then he said he was thinking about taking my mom some chocolates down to her,it is the first Valentines Day since my poppa passed,as we were talking plans changed and decided to go spend the evening with her so we headed down the pass on the way down we saw a Bald Eagle near Bust and figured since we were going down why not go do a quick birding at Fountain Creek Regional Park before it got dark we would have about and hour or so picked up my mom and headed that way and it was worth it we got there and yes it was a little chilly.Right before dark making out details on birds is hard,cant quite get the colors and the birds up in the trees just look dark.But as we made our way to the first pond we saw Mallards and some Hooded Mergansers up the path he stopped then pointed up as my favorite the Great Blue Heron flew from his spot by the waters edge,then he motioned over to me as the other one was still in his spot just standing in perfect view.We kept on the path to the big lake,the lake by the visitor center had just a little open water the rest still had ice on it had some Canada Geese,the big lake had a lot more ice on it the week before it was mostly ice free but the cold the last few days froze it over again,but there was an area free and lots of birds where there enjoying the last of daylight.We made it around where we could get a good view and got to see Geese and Common Mergansers and Hooded ones and American Widgeons a Common Goldeneye and Lesser Scaups and more Mallards,getting darker and then the birds all started squaking and a few flying off and getting louder I thought there has got to be a something around spooking them and then as I was thinking that my mom says is that an Owl,this bird just landed in the tree.Well right behind us a Great Horned Owl quietly flew up,never heard him but the birds sure did.I told my mom great find.Then another Heron flew over and the dark was upon us,time to head back.Was getting colder and dark enough we had to turn on our phones flashlights to help us along the way.The path was muddy was cold and dark and my mom made comments on those facts and we just told her that that just was a part of Tactical Birding.