Category: Science Geek Blog
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Cold wet weather forces birds to feeder
The last week has been cold and wet here along the Front Range. A bedraggled, while still handsome, male lazuli bunting landed on our feeder for a few moments. Male Bullocks Oriel dropped in, then almost immediately flew on. I usually see these birds in the foothills just west of my house, so he probably…
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Baby Owls have Fledged!
It’s official — all three of the baby owls that I’ve been watching have fledged. The owlets have left the nest! We found the babies and one of the adults in a tree across from their nest. I know it looks like one or two of them are hanging from the branches, but that’s just…
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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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Baby Owl Day
You know how it seems like there is an official Day for just about everything? I’ve decided to officially declare this Baby Owl Day. Why? Because I finally got to see them! I’ve been told that there are three owlets in the nest. Here, I can only see two for sure, and then mama in…
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Aurora Borealis at -35o
Up until now I have posted my own photographs on this blog, with very few exceptions. But my brother and his wife went to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, earlier this month to see the Aurora boriealis displays. The photos they brought back were stunning. Auroras are created when the sun burps plasma full of charged…
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Upslope Storm
We’re having a classic wet, sloppy, snowy spring storm today. It started last night and is expected to continue through tomorrow. So far, we’ve gotten about 9 inches of very wet snow, with about the same amount expected through today. This is called an “upslope storm” because winds circling around a low pressure in the…
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Wonder Returns
When I started my blog, lo these many years ago, it was, in part, to celebrate that unexpected wonder around us. But it’s been a hard few years for all of us, and I just wasn’t feeling so wonderful. Yesterday I went out birding with Anne, one of the folks I met on my recent…
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More Extremely Early Flowers
I saw this little plant in the rocks along our dog-walk route. Yes, that is a bit of snow sitting on it. My botany training from long ago says that it is a Senico, or common groundsel, in the sunflower family. It’s native to Europe, and probably came over in seeds of some sort. I’ve…
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Spring is coming …
February is always a hard month, but this year has been a little tougher than others. My husband and I have each had non-life-threatening medical problems (covid for me and joint replacement for him), both dogs have injured their legs, and major snow storms for each of the past three weeks, have all begun to…
Amy Law, Science Geek 