Pawnee National Grassland

Last week Deanna sent Christian and I to the Pawnee National Grassland for a couple of days to help out with their burrowing owl and prairie dog surveys. For those who don't know, prairie dogs are a very important part of the grassland ecosystem because they build extensive "towns" of burrows that provide shelter to various other animals, like burrowing owls. They are also an important food source for hawks, coyotes, and foxes.

Here is a typical prairie dog burrow.

This guy's keeping a watchful eye out for danger.

These are pronghorn, unique American antelope. They're very skittish.

Normally you just see their butts as they're running away from you.

Basically the Pawnee is a lot of rolling, grassy hills. It's quite a contrast from the mountains. You can see storms coming from miles away.

There's a little water, but not much.

Check out this awesome praying mantis. He threatened me with his little alien-like arms.

And now, I leave you with a typical Pawnee traffic jam.

Woodland Lake Trail

Yesterday I surprised Matthew with a birthday hike up the Woodland Lake trail, starting from the Hessie trailhead near Eldora. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've been on. You follow a creek through dense spruce-fir forest and climb over 2000 feet to reach two lakes near the treeline. It's about 11 miles round trip.

Matthew and Maxwell say hi from the top floor of a run-down old mining cabin along the trail.

Matthew and Maxwell pose on the trail.

Looking across Woodland Lake, the shallower of the two lakes. It's only 7 feet deep at the deepest point.Here, boy! Maxwell goes for a swim.

Looking back on Woodland Lake from the trail to Skyscraper Reservoir.



Maxwell on the shore of Skyscraper Reservoir. He wore his backpack on the hike and carried most of our supplies. What a good helper puppy!

Maxwell fetching a skick in Skyscraper Reservoir. Notice the patches of snow up on the mountain. We were up at about 11,200 feet here.

We skirted around to the far side of Skyscraper Reservoir, where a glacial trickle feeds into the lake. The wildflowers here were spectacular, and so were the butterflies.

So, after our hike, we were tired and sore, but it was totally worth it. We're looking forward to the next one.

Hi out there to anyone who still reads this. It's getting on to late summer now (wow, I can't believe it's August already) and the wildflower seeds I started a couple months ago are now blooming in front of my house. So our place actually looks nice instead of just having a big pile of dirt and rocks out front.

We have lots of different species flowering simultaneously. Sorry, this might be flower overkill, but I love taking pictures of flowers! According to the seed packet, these are all native Colorado species. And the best part is, they're drought tolerant--which is good because we hardly get any rain. Though last night it did rain pretty steadily for a long time. Maybe that's why all the flowers look particulary beautiful today.

Our vegetable garden has grown a lot, too. You can see it in this picture at the very back of the yard, by the fence. It's overflowing with cucumber, pumpkin, watermelon, broccoli, carrot, and green bean plants. So far only the cucumbers and green beans have borne fruit, but I'm still hopeful.

In other news, Christian, Deanna, and I spent a day in the field with the local Boulder County butterfly expert learning the various mountain species. Deanna wants to make a point to learn about them so we can plan on protecting and enhancing their habitat. I love my job!

Queen Alexandra's SulphurSmall Wood NymphEdward's Fritillary

Melissa BlueAphrodite Fritillary

Ha ha, fooled you! This isn't a Colorado species, but a tropical species that I saw when Matthew and I visited the Butterfly Pavilion in Broomfield.

And now, because there seems to be a theme of blog posts ending with pictures of cute animals, I give you. . .

THE CUTEST OWL EVER! Ok, maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate this cuteness. This is a baby saw-whet owl. He was only about as big as my hand. Adorable! (Deanna took this picture).