Category: Colorado Mileposts
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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…
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Monarch, bees and a male hummingbird
I stepped out into our front garden this afternoon and was treated to a Monarch butterfly circling a patch of sunflowers, occasionally landing and sticking it’s tongue into the tiny disk flower that actually produce pollen, nectar, and ultimately, sunflower seeds. It seems as if we haven’t had as many bees this summer, which is…
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Dead Things
Trigger Warning — I show photos of a couple of dead animals in this post, as well as talk about depressing things. If you’d rather not read on, I won’t hold it against you. This has been such a weird, extreme summer in so many ways — extreme heat over most of the continent, fires…
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You Otter See the Otters!
Last week, my husband and I took a long-delayed vacation in Monterey, California. The highlight of the trip were the sea otters that live in the kelp beds fifty feet off the beach. Before over hunting decimated them in the 1800s, sea otters ranged from Japan to Baja California, Mexico — 150,000-300,000 of them. But…
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Black-headed Grosbeak
We got over an inch of rain yesterday! We normally get about 16″ in the whole year, so that’s a lotta water comin’ down. We are expected to get at least that much again today, with some parts of the eastern plains getting more than 2″! That works out to 1/8-1/5 of our total water…
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New and Improved Website
Welcome to my new and improved website! My old one was beginning to look like one of those old farmhouses that just having rooms tacked on, so I decided to update the whole thing. A big shout-out to Jessica of Sutol Designs who set up the new site and made it all work! For those…
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Coopers or Sharp-shinned? You be the judge…
After my missed photographs several weeks ago, I have been carrying my camera with me when we go out for walks. Today, my efforts were rewarded. Just a block away from our earlier sighting, my husband spotted this Cooper’s/Sharp-shinned hawk coming in to land as we approached the tree. This neighborhood has had a pair…
Amy Law, Science Geek 