Author: Amy Law
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NASA Computer Simulation Shows 2017 Hurricane Tracks
This computer simulation from NASA shows just how interconnected the world is. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=12772&button=recent The computer simulation runs from August 1 through November 1, 2017. It follows hurricanes that tracked over the Atlantic Ocean this fall, letting you see how dust from the Sahara ends up in Miami, and smoke from the wildfires in California and…
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The Gift Of the Dying Dog
Hemingway said that all true stories end in death. This, then, is a true story… Autumn, 2011 My son wanted a dog of his own. We said no. We already had two dogs. He only had two years before he went off to college. There was no point in getting him a dog that he…
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Painted Ladies Part Two
After seeing thousands of painted lady butterflies a couple of weeks ago, I thought they were done for the season.Painted Ladies migrate across North America! Wrong! There are still so many migrating through the Denver area, that, when they fly a bit higher, they are visible on radar! How cool is that?
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Pika Patrol, Part Two
My husband, my son, his girlfriend and I went up to my Pika Patrol (Pika Patrol, Part One) site over the weekend. After thrashing about a bit learning how to use the GPS, we found the appointed talus slope. Located on the north shore of Grand Lake just south of Rocky Mountain National Park, researchers…
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Painted Ladies migrate across North America!
This morning, my husband and I stepped out of our house to walk our dogs, and were mobbed by Painted Lady butterflies! There were dozens in our yard, sipping nectar from sunflowers and oregano. As we walked through the neighborhood, the numbers increased. They were everywhere. Delightful! Painted ladies are on every continent except Australia…
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Colorado River Canoe
One of the things that I love about Colorado is that you can drive a few hours in any direction, and be in an entirely different environment. Normally, I spend a lot of time in the high country. But last week my husband and I traveled to Grand Junction, in the western part of Colorado,…
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Alpine Flowers
A couple of years ago, when I was giving presentations for my book (A Natural History of Trail Ridge Road: Rocky Mountain National Park’s Highway to the Sky), a member of the audience asked me where she could find wildflowers in the alpine tundra. I was a little nonplussed, because you can find wildflowers in…
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Pika Patrol, Part One
What do you do when you are forced out of your home? How do you find another place to live, when the sites you need are already full? American Pika, small rodent-like rabbit relatives who live in the alpine tundra of the Rocky Mountains, are facing this problem as warmer temperatures force them ever higher.…
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Hearts in Nature
Many people collect images of hearts in nature. I found this prairie coneflower as I was looking for prairie falcons this morning. (Focus on What’s at Hand) This is what prairie coneflower normally looks like. Prairie coneflower is in the sunflower family. You can see it if you mentally flatten the cone down a…
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Focus on What’s at Hand
It may not have been the best idea for a plant person to volunteer to monitor birds of prey. I mean, sure, I take lots of photos of birds. Some of them are even fair to decent. But mostly, the bird photos kinda happen to me — I’m sitting at the kitchen table and an…
Amy Law, Science Geek 