Category: Colorado Mileposts
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Butterflies Galore
I’m not really an expert on butterflies. But while hiking recently in the Front Range foothills , I saw so many of such varied species that I had to check into them a bit more. All these different butterflies are from just one hike. Females lay single eggs near violets. Caterpillars do not feed, but…
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Goldfinches at lunch
Much of Apex trail follows Apex Creek, and so it has lots of stream side plants growing along it. But as I was going back down the trail, I came to an open area. I looked up slope and saw a family of Lesser Goldfinches perched on top of some Canada thistle seed heads. While…
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Hummingbird wants that flower…
Some days everything, including my camera, just clicks. Yesterday was one of those days. This female Broad-tailed Hummingbird tries to get nectar from American vetch. But she can’t quite get her beak into the drooping flowers. Animals don’t usually sit still and work this hard to get something. It just makes them too much…
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“…Active Rattlesnake Incident…”
I was just finishing up my hike when I heard a woman scream. As a good citizen, I went back to check that everything was okay (or not). The woman was standing on the concrete path, with her two dogs. Five feet further on, a rattlesnake was stretched halfway across the concrete. The woman and…
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Swallowtail Butterflies
Several weeks ago, we had orange and black Monarch butterflies migrating through the Front Range. They seem to have moved on. But we’ve still got big butterflies in the area — yellow and black swallowtails. I’ve seen two different types of swallowtails. The western tiger swallowtail is lives along waterways and in woodlands, as well…
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Monarch Butterfly Migration
Thanks to the nice weather, I worked out in the yard for a good bit last weekend. As I worked, I saw and heard our normal back yard wildlife — feisty squirrels, black-capped chickadees, house finches, Northern flickers, dragonflies and big yellow swallow-tail butterflies. Then I saw something unusual — an orange butterfly. I assumed…
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Need a break from the heat
Denver hit an all time high temperature of 105o F (40.5o C) on Thursday. Fires rage throughout the West. Politics are just as heated. I need a break from the heat. Although I couldn’t get to the high country recently, I still have some good photographs from my trip up to tundra last month. These…
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Snow pack. Or Not.
In mountains where snow builds up — any snowy mountains — there is a unique form of water storage. It is the snow itself, and it is called snow pack. Here in Colorado, we rely on the delayed release of water from snow pack melt to slowly recharge the resevoirs into early summer. Above is…
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Nest watch
Yesterday I went out to the Red-tailed Hawk nest that I’ve been watching. Here’s what I saw: As I arrived, I saw the flash of orange of a Bullock’s oriole. These showy birds live in the mountain shrub community of the foothills. Always a pleasure to see them. Several Killdeer live in the marshy…
Amy Law, Science Geek 