Watching Red Fox Kits
We were driving along the road yesterday and happened to notice a commotion in one of the roadside Prairie Dog villages. It was a pair of Fox kits, rolling and playing in the sunshine. We watched a little bit longer.…
A Good Life
Miscellaneous Wanderings and Maunderings
A Good Life
Miscellaneous Wanderings and Maunderings
Portfolio
Aspen Twoleaf Tier Caterpillars
In mid-June of 2021, I was hiking along a river in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Their were Aspens trees lining the trail. The sun shone through the Aspen leaves, making them glow. It was very pretty, and I stopped to…
Sharp-shinned Hawk – Feeding the Birds on a Winter Morning
I’ve been putting chicken scratch out on the front porch for the last week or so. That brings dozens of little birds to the porch – Juncoes, White-crowns, House Finches, Rufous Towhees, Doves, and more. We’ll even get a Magpie…
Thistledown Velvet Ant – Dasymutilla pseudopappus
Yesterday (2022-10-23) I was walking along a trail in Southwestern Colorado, at an elevation of about 6200′. As I looked down, I saw a bit of white fluff in the middle of the trail, one that was moving of its…
Terrestrial Garter Snakes (Thamnophis elegans)
In the afternoon, Jack the Hound and I usually walk down the driveway to check the mail. And on three of the last four days, I’ve found a Terrestrial Garter Snake stretched out in the sun, either on the gravel…
An Encounter with a Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata)
Last week (August 31, 2022) I was up in the San Juan Mountains at about 10,500 feet, scouting for mushrooms in the Spruce-Fir forest. I was walking through a wet meadow when I saw a tiny creature hopping near my…
Xanthoteras eburneum – Cynipid Wasp galls on Gambel Oak
I was on a hike the other day in a Ponderosa Pine forest in Southwestern Colorado, at about 7000′. There were a number of small Gambel Oak seedlings in the trail, and some of their leaves had a line of…
Training Jack the Hound to Hunt Mushrooms
A week or so ago, Laurie and I watched a movie called The Truffle Hunters. It was a movie about some Italian folks who had trained their dogs to find Truffles – a type of subterranean fungus. This film inspired…
Morning Turkey Vulture
It’s early August 2022 here, and the weather has been hot. I’ve been trying to take Jack the Hound out for hikes in the cooler mornings. We’ve been walking a set of trails that are close to our house. The…
Backlit Tiger Salamander Larvae
I brought a few Tiger Salamander larvae home a couple of weeks ago (July 5, 2022). I was planning to use a photo-aquarium to get a better look at some of the Leeches on the Tiger Salamander larvae. Photographic the…