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Today's Features

  • Rare Lewis’ woodpecker sighted near Bailey

    May has had its usual fling of one last snowstorm. Fortunately, this year it was just about four inches, not the four feet it brought us a few years ago. Now that it has succeeded in ruining Mother’s Day for a good many people, it seems to be clearing up and the coming week’s forecast looks like we will be having not just spring, but summer weather.
    I didn’t get out on a birding trip this week, but I had proof of an interesting sighting brought to me.

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  • First flowers of spring bring color to foothills landscapes

    It is wonderful to see spring greening the hills once more. I drove south to Colorado Springs and Pueblo with friends last week and was once more impressed by the changing landscape south of Colorado Springs.
    North of Colorado Springs, the rolling hills of the prairie are green, and trees were beginning to leaf out. South of the Springs, you quickly enter desert country. In a few places, we saw cacti that looked like they might soon produce new growth and flowers, but in most places, the land was so overgrazed that the entire landscape appeared to be sand colored.

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  • Lavender pasque flowers welcome spring

    Lynne and I went out birding again for a few hours on Thursday, April 12. It was another fine spring day. The willows were leafing out along Bear Creek. Apples, pears and flowering crab were in full bloom. In Red Rocks Park, the native American plum was also in full bloom, its heavy, overly sweet fragrance in the air everywhere. Pasque flowers and yellow violets were also in bloom.

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  • Dirt mounds near your garden could be caused by pocket gophers

    Waking early this morning, I looked out my window to see what kind of day it was going to be. It was a beautiful spring morning and hadn’t dropped below freezing all night.
    The sky was cloudless, and the sun was just peeking over Stanley Mountain’s shoulder. The small amount of snow that had fallen the day before was gone. It had started melting even as it fell, and the warm night had completed the meltdown.

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  • Ingesting too much alcohol causes health, behavior concerns

    Part two of a two-part series.
    Self-assessment is important because when drinking at home, in a bar or at a social event, few of us get monitored. Maybe you will do what I did and redefine what “moderate drinking” is for you.

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  • Excessive use of alcohol is a serious public health issue

    This is part one of a two-part series.

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  • Mountain bluebirds already seen at Three Sisters

    The weather has been surprisingly spring-like this past week. However, driving by the lake, I noticed very little change. It remains frozen shore to shore. The first sign of ice breakup is usually the appearance of a larger and larger amount of open water at the inlet.

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  • Ducks will arrive shortly at Evergreen Lake

    Soon the ice will break up on Evergreen Lake, and migrating ducks will begin to appear. Usually blue-winged teal are the first to arrive. It is interesting to keep track of the large variety of ducks that can be seen on this little lake.
    Ducks are usually divided into two main groups.
    The so-called tip-up ducks or puddle ducks are those that tip their tail up into the air, and their necks and heads down into the water to feed in relatively shallow water. There are 16 species of puddle ducks in four genera.

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  • Hint of spring can be found on the plains

    Friday, Feb. 17, was an amazing day. A friend called to say she wanted to go out on the plains to search for the snowy owl that many have seen just east of Barr Lake and asked if I would like to go with her. She didn’t want to go alone and was willing to put up with me, my oxygen, etc., so I went and had a great day.

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  • Northern shrikes are winter visitors to area

    Late winter brings strange weather into this area. This year, January brought much warmer weather than usual, giving everyone spring fever.
    February thus far has turned out to be colder than average and has brought back-to-back snowstorms with scarcely a break in between.
    The only thing that you can be positive about is that it will change. Whatever it is like at the moment, it probably won’t be the same 10 minutes from now or tomorrow.

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