A Natural History Of Trail Ridge Road
Now On Sale
purple fringe, gravelly hillsides, montane to alpine
At first, Darwin wasn’t sure he wanted to play with Tegan.
Kayaks in Icy Straight.
Pelicans fly in formation.
Male calliope hummingbird flicking out his tongue. Notice that he has lower eyelashes.
Disk of the sunflowers is made up of spirals of flowers that follow the Fibonacci sequence.
Herons, more than almost any other bird, show me that birds are descended from dinosaurs.
Tag Archives: birds
Summer can’t be far away…
…we’ve had our first hummingbird at the feeder.
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, broadtailed hummingbird, Colorado, hummingbirds, summer
1 Comment
Cold Weather Birds
We woke up to 12o F (-11o C) in central Colorado — we have yet to have a significant snowfall in the foothills west of Denver. It’s been a little odd to see so many different types of winter birds … Continue reading
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, black-capped chickadee, bushtit, Colorado, dark-eyed junco, eurasian collard doves, House finch, nature, red-breasted nuthatch, snow
1 Comment
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, birds of prey, bushtit, Colorado, Front Range, nature, Northern flicker, sharp-shinned hawk, winter, woodpeckers
1 Comment
Hummer colors
If you’ve read my blog for very long, you’ll know that hummingbirds make frequent appearances. I love those little guys. Even more, I’m amazed by them. How they fly, how they hover Hummers Are Back, how they eat Eyelashes and … Continue reading
Valley of the Cranes
My husband and I went down to the San Luis Valley, in south central Colorado, last weekend. We’ve been down there to see the sandhill crane migration several times in the last few years (Minature Upslope Storm), and it is … Continue reading
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, Colorado, natural history, San Luis Valley, Sandhill Cranes
Leave a comment
Nuthatches pairing up
We’ve had a couple of red-breasted nuthatches coming to our bird baths up on Green Mountain this week. I’ve always enjoyed nuthatches because they remind me of darts that have been thrown really hard. After doing some research, I learned … Continue reading
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, Colorado, natural history, nature, red-breasted nuthatch
2 Comments
Downy Woodpecker Stops By
By and large, this winter has been notable for the lack of birds we’ve had come by. We just haven’t had many birds since the Week of Water in 2013. (Record-demolishing Storm) We still have most of our feeders up, … Continue reading
Calliope Hummingbirds
The last of the hummingbirdsare passing through my backyard this month. I happened to get a couple of great shots of some tiny, charming female calliopes buzzing around my rosemary plants. Because the rosemary is in a planter on deck … Continue reading
Posted in carnivorous plants, Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, calliope hummingbird, Colorado, hummingbirds, nature
Leave a comment
Over Trail Ridge Road with Nathan Heffel of Colorado Public Radio
Last week, I took Nathan Heffel of Colorado Public Radio over Trail Ridge Road. As we drove, Nathan interviewed me about my book, A Natural History of Trail Ridge Road: Rocky Mountain National Park’s Highway to the Sky. (A Natural … Continue reading
Eight Inches of Water in a Week
Eight inches of water in a week. That’s what we got up on Green Mountain, west of Denver. That’s about half of what we normally get in a YEAR. On the other hand, it is also about half of what … Continue reading
Posted in Colorado Mileposts
Tagged birds, Colorado, Colorado floods, flood, granites, natural history, nature, rain
Leave a comment
