Tag: nature
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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…
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Hummer migration
You know I love hummingbirds. I love to see them and I love to photograph them. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to watch them, at least. I’ve been getting up just before dawn (5:30 MDT) and can see them at a feeder in the garden. Photographing them has been a little tougher — at that…
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Pollinator Week — Bees
One of the pollinators we are most familiar with are bees. I love to take pictures of these gals — no idea why. But they have given me some of my very best photos. Bees are special among insects because they are covered in hairs. The hairs pick up pollen for them. Bees go from…
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Red-tailed Hawk Gets Mobbed
We have had a lot of red-tailed hawks in our back yard this spring. I saw another one yesterday. Of course I grabbed my camera and started shooting. This guy was in the Russian Olive, looking back at something behind him. Then I pulled back on the lens a little and saw that he was…
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Loggerhead — OOOPS — Northern Shrike
Author’s Note — after writing this post last night, I realized that I got the two browser windows confused, and wrongly identified the bird we saw as a Loggerhead, when it was actually a Northern Shrike. I have struck out the wrong name where appropriate. My next post compares the two birds. (https://amylawscigeek.com/2022/01/27/my-bad-its-a-northern-shrike-after-all/) Like so…
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110 Mile-per-hour Winds Drive Fire
Updated 12/31/2021 9:56 Winds as high as 110 miles per hour pushed a grass fire far faster than a car can drive, jumping the length of a football field in seconds yesterday in the Front Range towns of Superior and Louisville. Up to 600 homes have been destroyed, but as of this writing, no fatalities…
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Snow Pack Improves During December 2021
The good news at the end of a year otherwise filled with less than inspiring events is that the snow pack across the West has improved dramatically in the month of December. If you have been following my blog for a long time, you might have noticed my obsession with snow pack. Snow pack is…
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Snow, finally?
A much anticipated storm brought snow to the Denver area today. It remains to be seen whether or not it will produce the one half inch required at Denver International Airport to be recorded as our official first snow of the season. But here is the storm track anticipated by the National Weather Service: REALLY???!!!…
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2021 Pika Patrol, Part 2
Last week my husband and I made our way up to the other pika site outside of Leadville, and above Turquoise Lake we’ve been monitoring for the Colorado Pika Project. The day before the high country got a dusting of snow, but our day started with beautiful clear skies. Perfect for a moderately challenging 3…
Amy Law, Science Geek 