Category: Science Geek Blog
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Forecast was for an inch, soon to melt off
A brave, or foolish, magpie looks for a meal. I’m just really impressed that it built up as it did. Evan a little breeze will tip snow this deep over. Evidently, it was a really calm night. Thirteen and a half inches of very heavy, wet snow. Pretty, though. And we’re always glad for the…
-
Monarch Butterflies Overwintering In Mexico
I remember the day in the 1976 that I ripped open the butcher paper wrapper to the National Geographic Magazine to see the cover of the woman covered in Monarch Butterflies. She had just tracked down where they went every winter, and shared that information with researchers in Canada. For me, that moment represented was…
-
Riders on the Storm …
As usual, I heard them before I saw them, a “churring” call echoing off the low clouds. There they were, a ragged line high above me — sandhill cranes running before the storm. The High Plains, including the Front Range, are going to get our first major winter storm starting tonight — and it’s shaping…
-
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…
-
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…
-
DRAFT Creativity — Pattern Recognition
One of the biggest strengths of neurodivergent people, including dyslexics, is their ability to see patterns where the rest of us see static. But I want everybody to be able to see at least some of the patterns that I present. What do you see?
Amy Law, Science Geek 