Tag: drought
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Wildlife Still Active
First, a correction to my last post: Although we got a solid inch of snow, Denver proper did not. We are 800 feet higher than Denver, and frequently get precipitation when they don’t. The take-home? Denver has blown past the previous record for latest snow fall, with no relief in sight. As of November 30,…
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Latest First Snow On Record
We got our first snow last night. It wasn’t much — exactly an inch as measured on our porch railing. But we were all celebrating. Why? Our last snow was 218 days ago, our fifth longest snow-less stretch. Last night’s snow also marks a new record of latest first snow on record. As somebody I…
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2020 Pika Patrol
Over the weekend, my husband and I went up to the mountains for the first time this summer. We’ve been trying to isolate ourselves, and the mountain trails have been busy with people trying to get out of their houses while being safe. We headed up to do our annual Pika Patrol for the Denver…
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We all know we’ve been cool and wet, but WOW!
It has been a wet winter and spring where we live. If you are in the continental United States, it’s been cool and wet where you live, too. This has been the wettest 12 months in the history of the United States. (https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Wettest-12-Months-US-History) According to NOAA’s drought monitor (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), almost no place in the US…
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Snowpack Levels Low
Many people don’t realize that the western part of the United States is generally arid to semi-arid. The Pacific Northwest gets biblical amounts of rain, of course, because of the coastal mountain ranges wring the water out of the wet air. Every range of mountains east of the coast catches the ever drier air, and…
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Birds flee drought areas
I have seen more different birds at my feeders than I ever have before in the summer. In addition to the usual house sparrows, house finches, American and lesser goldfinches, mourning and collared doves, house wrens and dramatic raids by Cooper’s hawks, we’ve had white-crowned nuthatches, chickadees, spotted towhees and black-headed grosbeaks – birds that…
Amy Law, Science Geek 