Category: Colorado Mileposts
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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…
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Coopers Hawks are back in town
We took the dogs on our normal walk today, and we saw this … If I had brought my camera along, as I had been recently, I could have gotten a shot of a second, smaller Coopers in the tree above. Moral of the story? Never leave home without a telephoto lens in springtime.
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Blue Herons Fishing
I went for a walk with my best friend over the weekend. We chose to go around a local reservoir. Being mid spring, the powers that be have drained the reservoir before it refills with snow melt from the mountains, so the levels are very low. Less water but the same number of fish means…
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Doin’ the Wicka Dance
I haven’t posted very many photos of Northern Flickers because, mostly, I think they are boring (except when they are being chased). Big, beautiful, but not much going on in their woodpecker brains. But late last month, my husband called me to the window overlooking our multiple bird feeding stations. Outside were two male flickers…
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Another Storm
Welcome to another storm. The thermometer reads 9o as the snow falls. Again. I have lost count of how many fronts we’ve had pass through, dropping temperatures into the single digits and dumping a bunch of snow. I won’t turn down the moisture, but it is getting a little bit tedious to be hovering just…
Amy Law, Science Geek 