There are many variables affecting the number of birds and bird species seen on the Christmas Bird Count. Weather is a big one. Dec. 19, the Cheyenne counters met up with strong winds that put a damper on small bird numbers. None of us were mean enough to shake them out of the bushes.
“Fort Laramie Strawberries are from the ‘ice-box’ section of our nation, Cheyenne, Wyoming. This is a super hardy, wonderfully producing ever-bearing strawberry. You’ll harvest your first berries this very summer! And what berries – HUGE, bright, scarlet-red berries ...”
Douglas Tallamy is a mild-mannered entomology and ecology professor at the University of Delaware. He imparts the wisdom he gains from his insect studies to students and colleagues.
Thinking about ways to treat yourself or a gardening friend this holiday season? See what you think of these ideas.
By early November, our winter feeder birds are back.
The downhill skiing and snowboarding season is here. Colorado’s Keystone Resort garnered the coveted “first to open” award for Front Range resorts, followed closely by Arapahoe Basin and Loveland. These three resorts typically vie for the earliest opening award each year.
“You are what you eat” is a phrase first attributed to a Frenchman in 1826, then a German in 1863. In 1942, it was the title of a book by American Victor Lindlahr. Plants are what they eat, too.
Nov. 14 marks the beginning of me and Mark’s 22nd season participating in Project FeederWatch. It’s a community/citizen science winter bird count endeavor started by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada back in 1987.
I’m trying to follow my own advice to use a notebook to track what I plant (and where) and what the results are. That way, in the depths of winter, when the catalogs and nurseries tempt me with their 2021 offerings, I might review my notes and make better-informed decisions.
Mark and I were camping in the Cascades with our granddaughter and her parents, watching American dippers fly up and down the Sauk River when the unseasonably early snowstorm hit Cheyenne Sept. 8-9.
October is a great time to star gaze. The skies are frequently clear, the temperatures are tolerable and you can have dark skies for a few hours before bedtime.
It is that time of year again when the hills come alive with color. Or, at least that is what typically occurs by mid- to late September. This year, of course, is not normal. That is true in many ways, including this fall’s leaf peeping season.
Canada is happy again. It was not happy in December 2017 when the solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior reinterpreted the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act so that it allowed industry to accidentally kill birds without any penalty – including birds that spend summers in Canada.
September evening skies are a mixture of the summer Milky Way still found overhead and dominating the western sky with the dimmer and less obvious autumn constellations found in the eastern sky. High overhead is Cygnus and Lyra, both of which contain two stars of the Summer Triangle. The thi…
“…a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?” – William Shakespeare
High overhead, in July, you’ll find the constellation Hercules. The four stars making up the top of Hercules is known as the Keystone, and if you point a telescope or binoculars to the west side of the Keystone, you’ll find one of my favorite objects: M13, a wonderful globular cluster. West …
Mail-order seed companies report they are running out of seed – vegetable seeds, primarily. Seems like we’re all wanting to take a step toward self-sufficiency this spring when there are so many other aspects of life beyond our control.
I am living under the flight path of major construction. A Swainson’s hawk is plucking cottonwood branches from one neighbor’s tree and taking them over my house to another neighbor’s tree to build a nest.
The constellations overhead in May are dominated by Leo and Ursa Major. Leo the Lion is easily picked out by a large backward question mark known as the Sickle. The bright star at the bottom of the Sickle is Regulus. Ursa Major the Great Bear is home to the well-known group of stars known as…
The women weren’t used to finding the trailhead full on a weekday afternoon.
What we learned at the recent Cheyenne Habitat Hero workshop is there are three alternatives to standard landscaping (turf and foundation junipers).
Spring is when Houghton Mifflin Harcourt likes to send out bird books to review – completely forgetting that as spring migration gets going, birders have less time to read. Maybe we’ll have more time to read this year. Luckily, birding in Wyoming, without Audubon field trips, is a solitary e…
Stephanie DiCenso could’ve cried about the skull fractures. About the broken jaw and eye socket. About the nerve damage. About the internal bleeding and brain swelling. About what the neurosurgeon told her parents as she lie unconscious:
Although the stars and constellations we see in April are a sure sign spring is here, we know better than that living in Wyoming. At least we get some clear nights between snow storms and the snow melts faster this time of year. The bright constellations of winter Canis Major, Orion, Gemini,…
With the coronavirus pandemic closing venues for sports, concerts, food and even prayers, we’re fortunate in the Pikes Peak region to have trails to relieve our stress and renew our spirits.
He would never give up trail running, but Joe Oldendorf said he will probably make some adjustments to his routine after his recent endeavor, in which he fractured his leg during a solo run and found himself stranded for more than 10 hours on the Olympic Peninsula.
For centuries, Idaho’s City of Rocks has been a destination. It was part of the Shoshone and Paiute tribes’ territory originally, and in the 1800s became a landmark for travelers on the California Trail at the junction of the Salt Lake and California roads. Today it’s a must-visit for rock c…
Keep away from people. That is one of the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect you from Covid-19. What better way to avoid people than to get outdoors where there are few people?
It’s easy to feel like a noob at Colorado’s famous ski resorts. That’s why we asked the locals for tips.
When hours of daylight are quickly lengthening and seed packets are showing up at garden centers, you know it’s time for flower and vegetable seed starting. If you’ve never tried, it’s time to learn how.
Reaching an elevation of 11,158 feet above sea-level, Colorado’s Eisenhower Tunnel is both the longest mountain tunnel and the highest point in the United States’ interstate network. It’s also the highest vehicular tunnel in the world.
The relationship between groundwater and surface water is important to birds and other wildlife – and people.
