Category: Colorado Mileposts
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Cedar Waxwings
There is a tree along the walk that my husband and I take every morning with the dogs. It’s a chokecherry tree. Every spring it is covered in beautiful pink blossoms. But in late winter, it is loaded with last year’s chokecherries. And sometimes, the cedar waxwings visit. I think they are very beautiful birds…
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It’s Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Spring!
In the past week, the temperatures have warmed up along the Colorado Front Range — a lot! As a result, it’s beginning to feel a lot like spring. There have been dozens of robins flying through the neighborhood. Robins have a special place in my heart for two reasons: first, they were the first bird…
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American Dipper
There are several American Dippers wintering under bridges across the greenbelt west of Denver. They wade in the icy water to catch small crustaeceans. Sometimes they just put their heads in. And sometimes they go all the way under and walk along the bottom of the rushing creek.
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Red-Tailed Hawk in Backyard
I was on the phone with my son Sunday when the dogs went berserk. Looking into the backyard, I saw why — an enormous Red-tailed Hawk was sitting in the top of the Russian-olive tree in our back yard, lusting over the birds scattering from our feeder. With a hurried excuse to my son, I…
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Ducks!
I am a dryland girl. When I was growing up, there wasn’t enough open water around to entice any sort of waterfowl to land. So I never bothered to pay attention to ducks when I *did* see them. But now I’m going down the the Creek frequently — it lets me relax to see the…
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Muskrat Love
I was walking along the wetland recently, looking for beaver, or better yet, mink, that a friend of mine had spotted. My efforts were pretty half-hearted — it was ten in the morning — long after any self-respecting beaver would be denned up. But I was having a difficult day, and needed a distraction. And…
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2024 Pika Patrol
If it’s fall, it must be time to look for pika! As always, we are going out as part of the Colorado Pika Project, a Citizen Science project monitoring pika throughout the Colorado mountains. This is the meadow (11,598 feet) where we start our search for pika. They live in the rocks directly in front…
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Baby Owls Fledging … Sort Of.
I went back over to the green belt to check on the baby owls today. They are doing well, but two of them are a little reluctant to leave the nest. Mama and a big bundle of feathers, to the right, were spotted first. Mama kept prying up bark. My husband asked if it could…
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2023 Pika Patrol, Part II
We went pika patrolling at Halfmoon Creek above Leadville this weekend, and I’m happy to say, I was wrong! Last year I said there would be no more pika at the site until a fire cleared the trees away from the talus. But this year, we saw one pika, and heard several. Not great, but…
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2023 Pika Pilgrimage
My husband and I headed back up to the high country this week to count pika. I’ve been asked if we get bored doing the same site every year. My answer is — it’s not the same site. There’s something new every time. This chipmunk has just jumped up from the rock beneath it to…
Amy Law, Science Geek 