winter – Amy Law, Science Geek

Spring is Coming — Promise

It has been a long cold hard winter along the Front Range of Colorado. We have gotten enough snow in February to wipe out the incipient drought we were headed into, which is a good thing. But it came at the cost of a snowstorm every couple of days. That was hard. We’re not outContinue reading “Spring is Coming — Promise”

Windy Days

We’ve had some windy days lately. Two days ago (October 20, 2019) we had gusts up to 40 mph (miles per hour) — it was hard to walk in that wind! As we battled the blustery weather while walking the dogs, I happened to look to the west, where I saw lens-shaped clouds hovering overContinue reading “Windy Days”

This Winter’s Weather Patterns

I’ve been obsessing for the last couple of posts about how dry we’ve been this winter. This image from the NOAA GOES satellite says it all: The blue is storm clouds — Winter Storm Quinn, to be exact, that dumped feet of snow on the Sierra Nevada. It hit the Colorado border and turned northContinue reading “This Winter’s Weather Patterns”

Sharp-shinned hawk misses flicker for lunch

The gregarious band of little bushtits took off in a burst of feathers and cheeping alarm calls. I looked up just in time to see a Northern flicker shoot out of the top of a tree, with a sharp-shinned hawk in hot pursuit. Luckily for the flicker, the hawk had made its move too soon,Continue reading “Sharp-shinned hawk misses flicker for lunch”

Not reindeer, but…

We had a small herd of deer come into our yard this week. We’ve had deer in the neighbor’s yards before (Backyard Deer), but with our dogs, this is the first time in years that they’ve come into ours. The recent cold weather has kept the snow from recent storms on the ground longer thanContinue reading “Not reindeer, but…”

Spring is coming. Really.

If we can just hold on a little longer, spring is coming. How do I know? Robins, dark-eyed juncos and rufus-sided towhees are back at the feeders. Also, as I was walking into to library this morning, I heard a crow making a weird ringing “B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong! B’Dong!” call. It drew a crowd asContinue reading “Spring is coming. Really.”

Where have all the birds gone?

Look at this picture. Look at it closely. Count the number of birds in it. How many did you find? If you counted zero, nada, zilch, you are not alone. Since before Thanksgiving, I have seen very few birds at our feeders. In an email to Hugh Kingery, of the Audubon Society of Greater Denver,Continue reading “Where have all the birds gone?”