Tag: nature
-
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???!!!…
-
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…
-
Welcome to AmyLawSciGeek.com!
Thank you so much for joining me at my new blog location on my new website! I started this blog over ten years ago, with the intention of talking about nature in Colorado. While that will be my ongoing default, I’ve found that there are a lot of other areas of interest that I want…
-
Owl Wing Feather Adaptations
It turns out that cottontail bunnies have more to worry about in the neighborhood than just hawks and coyotes. As my husband and I were walking the dogs this morning, we found a Great Horned Owl wing feather lying next to the sidewalk. This stealthy hunter takes birds, skunks, mice — and rabbits. And owls…
-
Less air = bluer skies
We all live in a thick layer of air called the atmosphere. On average it is about fifty miles thick. But as you go up, the atmosphere gets noticeably thinner. At the top of Mount Evans (14,130 feet or 4306.8 meters), there is 1/3 less air than at sea level. That means less air between…
-
Dark-Eyed Juncos — Evolution in Action
Once I had a fancy camera that held bird images still so that I could figure out what I was looking at, I began to learn a lot more about LBJs — Little Brown Jobbies — little birds that are around us but we really don’t pay much attention to. And one of the first…
-
Birds Before the Storm
This has been such a weird year. Earlier this week, we saw a female broad-tailed hummingbird feeding on the last of a neighbor’s Rose-of-Sharon flowers. Then we had three more forest fires start in the mountains to the west. It’s October! It is time to cool off. But this morning we woke to cold temperatures…
-
Pika Patrol, Part II
In late August, my husband and I went up into the mountains of the Front Range to monitor pika as volunteers for the Front Range Pika Project in conjunction with the Denver Zoo. At that time, we were shocked at how dry the high country was. Last week, we went on Pika Patrol for a…
-
Snow in September
Colorado went from 93o on Monday September 7 to 32o Tuesday September 8, 2020 — a change of sixty-one degrees in 24 hours. Prior to that, On September 6, Denver reached 101o making it our latest 100o day. That gave us a 48 hour change of 68o. This weather whiplash was a result of the…
-
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…
Amy Law, Science Geek 