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.
It was 2001, their second winter in Colorado. Not long removed from college in Michigan, endurance athlete Josiah Middaugh and his wife were down to $50.
In March, the bright winter constellations of Canis Major, Canis Minor, Orion, Gemini, Taurus and Auriga fill the southern sky, stretching all the way to zenith – the point directly overhead. Directly due south you’ll find Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. If you are away from city ligh…
With Presidents Day recently past, we’re giving a nod to those with connections to Colorado’s great outdoors. Here’s a look at how some legacies reached far west of the White House:
Planting a terrarium sounded like a good way to get my hands in dirt mid-winter and protect tasty houseplants from marauding kittens.
For players in the outdoor recreation industry, the name of the game is getting people to play in nature.
A pack of wolves is believed to be hunting in northwest Colorado and it has some hikers wondering if they should be worried about encountering this deadly apex predator on the trail. Below, I’ve answered a few common questions related to wolves and wolf safety in areas where this animal is present.
Panayoti Kelaidis stepped out to pour us a couple cups of Ceylonese tea. While I waited, I noticed his office at the Denver Botanic Gardens has floor-to-ceiling shelves full of plant books from parts of the world he’s travelled to.
Technology drives changes in the birding community as it does for the rest of the world. We always wonder how hard it will be to adapt to the inevitable.
