Category: Colorado Mileposts
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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…
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Cedar Waxwings
The Front Range of Colorado has been enjoying an invasion of Waxwings. There are two types of Waxwing in North America — Cedar and Bohemian — and both have been spotted in large numbers throughout the Denver area this winter. I subscribe to several bird-watch lists, and I read with a little frustration about all…
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Bitter Cold Brings Birds To the Feeder
Welcome to the Second Day of Winter! Well, actually, this was written on the second day of winter, but it didn’t get posted properly, and so it is now old news. But still interesting? You decide … We hit -15 this morning, prompting the dogs to call off their morning walk by the time they…
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Female Cassin’s Finch Brought a Friend
A female Cassin’s finch showed up at our feeder a couple of weeks ago. (New Bird at The Feeder) Evidently, she liked our offerings so much, she brought a friend back. The bird on the left is obviously a male Cassin’s finch — red head feathers raised in a little crest, eye streak of white, and…
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New Bird at The Feeder
We had a newly identified bird at the feeder yesterday — a female Cassin’s Finch. The reason I say “newly identified bird” is because all these female finches look a lot alike, and when they are flitting about in a flock at the feeder, it’s hard to realize that I’ve got more than my average…
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2022 Pika Patrol, Part Two
My husband and I went up to our second pika site, this one on Halfmoon Creek above Leadville, Colorado, last week, looking for the little rabbit-relatives. If you recall, last year we unexpectedly had to walk an extra six miles to the site and back due to a Forest Service road closure. This year, the…
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2022 Pika Patrol Part 1
Every year, my husband and I look forward to hiking up to the high country to check on the pika that live there, as part of the Colorado Pika Projects‘ monitoring efforts. We’ve been doing it for five years now, but when pressed by friends as to what it is that we enjoy so much,…
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Cooper’s Hawk Snags a Finch
Trigger warning: The small bird died. I was getting ready to start making dinner last night when I saw a shadow swoop over the back porch, low, fast and dark. When I looked up, I saw a squirrel running down the top rail of the fence faster than I have ever seen a squirrel run…
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Patterns in Nature
I started off thinking this post was going to be about the fact that sunflowers make two different kinds of flowers, which I think is really interesting. When we think of sunflowers, we think of the big showy flowers around a central disk. But the disk is made up of flowers, too! And actually, the…
Amy Law, Science Geek 