Ημερολόγιο της/του mhughes26

The transition from winter to more balmy weather has been underway in the Front Range, and this weekend made this very evident. The deciduous trees still look bare for the most part, but closer inspection reveals that buds are bursting on many of them. Some trees that are further along in this process even have a faint light green shimmer.

Of course, where you are in the Front Range has a big impact on the progress of this spring greening. I've noticed that where I live in Castle Rock, things are further behind season wise, probably due to the increased elevation on the Palmer Divide. The Denver metro area in contrast, is further along - probably due to a lower elevation and the urban heat island.

My favorite thing about spring though is seeing blossoms on trees and flowers. Colorado doesn't have the same grandiose springtime that exists in the Midwestern and Eastern United States. In my early 20s I moved for work to North Dakota and then Virginia where I saw the dogwoods, cherries, and redbuds in their shades of white, pink, and purple. Recently I was in northern Texas where blue bonnets, along with some bright red flowers dotted the medians and roadsides on the highway between Amarillo and Dallas.

Still, my home state does spring in its own special way. Typically, the mountain peaks of the Front Range are still white with snow while the plains slowly green up. Pasqueflowers are among some of the first wildflowers to start blooming (I have not seen any as of this journal post). And there are actually a lot of fruit trees (some ornamental, some in orchards) in Colorado like cherries and apples (the picture above is an ornamental cherry that my girlfriend and I found in Littleton this past Saturday). Speaking of apples, Colorado used to be an apple capital of the United States before Washington State developed the Red Delicious and Colorado suffered a drought that wiped out the industry (1). Both apples and cherries have gorgeous blossoms and as long as a late spring snow storm or frost doesn't kill them, they really brighten Colorado neighborhoods, orchards, and ranches.

Spring seems to be later in Colorado than other parts of the country, but the trend everywhere is that our changing climate is causing springtime to start earlier and cause certain phenological and ecological trends to fall out of sync. Song birds, according to a recent report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are having smaller broods of chicks in years when they are out of sync with leaf out (2).

All of this is concerning, but I do enjoy the warmer weather. With temperatures in the 70s this past weekend we went for a walk around Crown Hill Park around Wheat Ridge (a favorite spot) and saw blossoms on wild plum (Prunus americana) as well as cottonwoods and willows budding out. We also saw a family of turtles sunning themselves on a log in a wetland (and they immediately dove into the water when we got close, so I did not get a picture for iNaturalist).

References

1. Uncovering A Colorado Apple Mystery. Science Friday https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/colorado-apple-mystery/.
2. Wildlife Science: Urban Moths, Water Features, Spring Songbirds. National Wildlife Federation https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2024/Spring/Animals/Urban-Months-Water-Features.

Springtime in Colorado is a tricky thing to pin down because March and April are months where we can still see a lot of snow. In fact, we got quite a bit of snow this past March, including several days where work was remote because roads were either hazardous or just completely impassable.

Never the less, there are still four seasons in the Rocky Mountains and the Front Range. This past weekend seemed to usher in some familiar signs of springtime. Greenery is still sparse in the Denver area, but here and there we've seen blossoms on some of the ornamental trees planted around the city. We even saw a few trees with budding leaves, though certainly not the majority.

My girlfriend and I like to go for walks on the weekends around Crown Hill Park in Wheat Ridge and noticed a lot of red-wing blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) in the tall stalks near the water. We don't seem to remember hearing them very often from previous walks we took through the winter so it's tempting to think that their arrival is a sign of spring seasonal change, but Colorado is technically within the year round range of the birds, and southern and some western populations do not migrate (1). Also, according to ornithologists at the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, males and females make their calls all year round (2). Regardless, it's a great sound and it had been some time since our ears had heard it.

A more definitive springtime sound that we heard was that of the many chorus frogs (Boreal chorus frog, Pseudacris maculata) that were in the partially submerged grassy areas and ditches around the park. Once the snow and ice have melted and created wetland habitat in flooded meadows, drainage ditches, and small temporary ponds, the males begin to call to females to come lay their eggs (3). This can start as early in March and marks the beginning of the mating season which will continue until May (3).

References

1. Red-winged Blackbird Range Map, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/maps-range.
2. Red-winged Blackbird Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/sounds.
3. Boreal Chorus Frog | Horticulture, Landscape, and Environmental Systems | Nebraska. https://hles.unl.edu/boreal-chorus-frog.

There is a porcupine (North American Porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum) that lives in a culvert in an part of Castle Rock that I visit sometimes to take the dog for a walk. The first time I saw this porcupine was a little over a year ago. In fact, I have been documenting him (or her, I really don't know) on iNaturalist for the past year whenever I see him. Below are the links to those observations:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143054720
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144618693
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149146373
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154006925

And finally today's observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/200319890

This porcupine seems to be habituated to the constant stream of bikers and dog-walkers that regularly pass. The culvert that it is currently making its home in is not very far away from a concrete bike path that many people (myself included) frequent. Also, at one point there was a lot more dense vegetation surrounding this culvert (including lots of sunflowers), but somebody mowed it all down. Fortunately, other residents of this neighborhood seem to also know about the porcupine and have affectionately named him Patrick. Patrick, the neighborhood porcupine!

While walking the dog (who thankfully was completely oblivious to the porcupine), I ended up seeing several other signs of wildlife, including tracks of wild turkeys and what I think might have been a raccoon. There is a lot of disturbed soil in this area due to construction and the snow has been melting which has made a lot of areas very muddy. These conditions have led to lots of wildlife tracks.

Towards the end of the walk I saw some sort of wolf spider and then finally a red-tailed hawk that was eating some small animal (probably a rodent). When I approached the hawk to try and get a better photo (because the zoom lens on my camera phone leaves much to be desired) it of course flew away but I did see some blood on the post where it had been feeding.

With the end of February approaching the days are definitely getting longer and I passed several wetland areas on this walk that I think will be good areas to try and search for frogs and toads this coming spring and summer.

This year my girlfriend and I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. We were already in Estes Park on Saturday and Sunday, snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw two mountain chickadees while we were up there.

On Monday, February 19th, the last day of the event, we went to Castlewood Canyon State Park, which is one of the best places near where I live to see a wide variety of birds. We started at the north end of the park around four o'clock and made our way towards the canyon rim, but turned back due to lots of mud and the fact that we weren't seeing a lot of birds towards that area.

However, in the roughly two hours we spent looking for birds we ended up tallying American robins, woodpeckers (either Hairy or Downy, I'm not sure which), dark-eyed juncos, a black-capped chickadee, spotted towhees, a Townsends's solitaire, and a red-tailed hawk.

Other birds that we did not see but which I have seen before in the park included turkeys, turkey vultures, ravens, and Stellar's jays.

We did end up seeing a bunch of mule deer at the edge of the park on our way home, which although are obviously not birds are still great to see, especially in the soft February evening light.

Went snowshoeing in State Forest State Park this past weekend (January 20, 2024) with my girlfriend and two other friends who joined us. Snowshoeing is one of my favorite ways to spend time outdoors because it's a naturally slow and quiet activity that lets you take the time to notice your surroundings. State Forest State Park typically receives plenty of snow in the winter time as well, so this is also a plus.

One of the many reasons I love this park so much (my girlfriend and I were there in September to view the aspen trees, which were at their peak for fall foliage and color at that time - see my previous journal post), is that the four seasons are so distinct here. Summer is very lush and green here with an assortment of wildflowers, in autumn the aspen trees turn gold, orange, and even red, and of course in winter there is an abundance of snow. Unlike the Front Range of Colorado (the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, etc.) where snow typically melts within a few days, here the snow stays and often accumulates. Of course this is largely due to the high altitude mountain location on the Continental Divide (State Forest State Park is nestled between the Medicine Bow Mountains and the Never Summer Range to the north and south respectively, and between North Park and the Poudre Canyon to the west and east respectively).

The crags and surrounding peaks (below) are the first thing you see when you enter the park and depending on the time of year they can be frosty and coated in snow like they were most recently, green and patchy in the springtime, or completely free of snow by late summer and fall.

This state park is known as the moose capital of Colorado, and this is due to the fact that moose were successfully reintroduced in Northern Colorado and are now a regular sight in the area. We did not see any moose on this trip, but we did see evidence of plenty of wildlife etched in the snow by their tracks. We originally thought that the tracks in the photo below were from a bobcat, but @galxe pointed out that these were more in line with that of a snowshoe hare (the smaller tracks being from the front paws, and the bigger ones that we originally took for a cat being the hind legs). Thanks @galxe!

As I've already mentioned, State Forest State Park is a great place to view aspen trees and although they no longer have their leaves this time of year, their black and white bark against the snow and the winter mountain sky is stunning. You will notice in one of the photos that some people carve their initials or other notes into the tree bark. Please don't do this.

Further along our winter hike, we discovered these controlled burn piles. Winter is a safer time to do this since the moisture from the snow and the cold temperatures will prevent a conflagration but there is concern from many conservationists that this concentrated heat from the burn pits is not great for the soils underneath. After the fuel (the lumber) has burned, it can cause the soil below to be more hydrophobic and then susceptible to erosion once the snow melts or it rains.

The main reason I wanted to make this post is because I love snow, winter, and the cold, and because there is no reason to stop using iNaturalist even when lots of plants, insects, and migratory birds are no longer around. If you live in a colder climate, getting out and trying to identify animal tracks in the snow is a lot of fun too!

For most any Coloradan, aspen trees conjure up images of crisp fall days walking through groves of black and white bark and golden to red leaves that delicately rattle in the wind (hence the name quaking aspen). Here in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, aspens usually start to change their leaves beginning in September, with peak colors being observed in the middle of the month and continuing into early October (1). Besides the time of the year, latitude, elevation, local weather patterns (including drought or above average precipitation), and tree health also impact the timing of fall color changes (1).

This year, Colorado received more precipitation than usual so vegetation really took off. In fact, the snow this past winter and spring was enough to pull Colorado out of drought for the first time in four years (2). That’s pretty exciting! Experts with the Colorado State Forest say this contributes to better than average fall colors this year! In particular, if the growing season is wet (lots of snow and rain, which happened in Colorado this year), and autumn is sunny with cool, frost-free nights, then colors can be expected to be brighter (1).

So, going forward, how is climate change going to affect aspen trees and fall colors in the Rockies? It’s complicated, because this year’s conditions don’t align with the projected trend of Colorado becoming warmer and drier in the future, which stresses and kills aspen groves, but in general it seems that we can expect fall foliage to come at a later time in the year and stick around for a shorter period of time (3). However, brighter colors may also result, due to the warming temperatures which may equate to sunnier days in the fall (3).

In any case, I can confirm based off my sightings while camping and hiking this September and October, that the fall colors in Colorado are alive and well this year. Enjoy these photos of aspens (and some cottonwoods too) in Northern Colorado (Kremmling, North Park, State Forest State Park) and Golden Gate Canyon State Park.

On September 23, 2023, driving north of I-70 around Silverthorne, Dillon, and Frisco, I followed CO-9 north towards Kremmling. The valley here was full of aspens and also cottonwoods that were in their full gold regalia.

From Kremmling I continued north through Rabbit Ear's Pass and into North Park. This is also a beautiful area with lots of aspens, willows and other deciduous trees that were turning very yellow.

Finally, at the end of the day I reached my destination of State Forest State Park, and this is where the most spectacular color show was taking place (in my opinion at least). The finale was the sunset on the aspen trees facing the Never Summer Mountains in the distance (including the Crags).

Further south the following Saturday (September 30th), I ended up in Golden Gate State Park (west of Golden, near the Indian Peaks Wilderness). Aspen trees here were much further along, which speaks to how quickly the leaf changing season is in the Rocky Mountains.

References

1. Aspen Fall Colors. Colorado State Forest Service https://csfs.colostate.edu/aspen-fall-colors/.
2. Colorado’s fall leaf-peeping season could be one of the best in years. RMPBS https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/colorado-fall-leaves/.
3. As Colorado continues to warm, what happens to its famous fall foliage? RMPBS https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/what-could-global-warming-mean-for-fall-foliage/.

To celebrate the fall colors this year in Colorado, and elsewhere in North America, I'm going to make a plug for the launch of a new iNaturalist project that I created: the Quaking Aspen Phenology & Fall Colors Project. If you love aspen trees or just enjoy observing changes throughout the year, join the project! Right now it is pretty casual but in the future I plan to add data fields for recording phenology pertaining to bud burst, leaf change, and leaf loss. (If anybody knows how to add additional project data fields on an iNaturalist project, let me know in the comments section).

Click on the link to join the project!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/quaking-aspen-phenology-fall-colors-project