BEAR encounter!

The other day Bill and I went to the Upper Huerfano Valley, San Isabel National Forest for a picnic lunch with his daughter Laura, husband Tim, oldest son Kyle and Kyle's girlfriend Raeanne. This would have been our weekend to go camping, but with the severe fire restrictions, we decided that camping without a campfire would just not be the same.

As we were leaving - driving out the long, extremely bumpy dirt road away from the trail head and the camping sites, Tim stopped and ran back to our car and pointed out a huge bear in the woods. Bill wouldn't let me get out of the car, so Tim took my camera and tried to get a picture. With all the branches and underbrush, the camera did not focus and the pictures did not turn out. I was bummed. The bear was very close to where we camp - which is a little scary.

Driving down the road towards Gardner, we saw two more bears. This time they were in a clearing so I could get some decent pictures from the safety of the car.

The first one was cinnamon colored - not quite as big as the other one we'd seen - but big enough! (Note the ear tag.)

His companion was a large all brown bear.

Even though neither bear was black in color, they were both Black Bears.

By the time they wandered off and I finished taking pictures, several other cars had stopped behind us to take pictures too.

Another sight along the road - a large family of deer including this antlered male and adorable spotted fawn.

It was a great day!

Bill took me along for the maiden voyage of one of his new planes - a seaplane that he had just completed. He takes off from a lake located east of town at a Boy Scout campground. I was supposed to be taking pictures of the planes - but every once in a while something else captured my attention.

This picture of Song Sparrow shows its identifying characteristic - a central spot on his chest.

There were lots of Tree Swallows flying around - but it's a treat when one lands and lets me get a decent picture.

There are two main types of Bluebirds here in Colorado: Western Bluebirds with the rusty red chests and the more common Mountain Bluebirds.

There was a nest under the roof of the out-building and this youngster was trying out his wings.

On the way home we saw lots of Antelope including this large male and his lady friends.

Back home in our yard we have had an odd visitor. This is a common female House Finch - only she is almost all white. My initial thought is that she was an albino - but her eyes are not pink. I sent this picture to a local birder and he replied that she is leucistic - an abnormally pale bird with very faint markings.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: "Albinism is a genetic mutation that prevents the production of melanin in the body. Leucism is a genetic mutation that prevents melanin from being deposited normally on feathers." Both are quite rare. She has returned daily, but according to the experts, she may not be able to find a mate who will accept her and her odd coloring makes her an easier target for predators.

We haven't had many hummingbirds this year - yet. This one must be a new fledgling as she still has some baby fuzz.

More baby birds: Robins.

They come to shower in our pond almost every day. I don't blame them one bit as it has been exceptionally hot here - but every time I go to complain about our 90 degrees - I see that everywhere else has as hot or hotter temperatures and the added bonus of humidity. Our humidity still measures in the single digits most days.

This is the chimney on our neighbor's roof and we can see it from our patio. It makes a nice little house for a family of raccoons. We sat outside and amused ourselves watching them stretch and wiggle around until finally at dusk...


...one of them headed out and immediately came into our yard to get a drink at our birdbath. The others waited patiently for him to return.

More Fledglings and a Hail Storm

We are seeing young birds everywhere. The new fledglings usually appear plumper than the adults, gather in groups with their nest mates and chirp for momma to come feed them.

This is a young female House Finch that I encountered this morning on the way back from my walk. Her coloring is very similar to what it will be when she reaches maturity.

Young American Robins like this one perched on our little fisherboy pond ornament have speckled breasts until their first birthday.

This young Starling looks confused. She wanted to get into the bird feeder but wasn't quite sure how to go about it and finally left without eating.

I saw these young Kingbirds in a tree along side an urban trail that runs from downtown Colorado Springs east to Powers. We sometimes ride our bikes along this trail out to Einsteins for coffee. This morning I was out for a short stroll to look for birds and a couple of geocaches that I knew were along the trail.

This young Goldfinch seems to like sitting on top of the waterfall as we have seen him there a couple of days in a row.

We've been back to Pulpit Rock Park to hike and look for caches. This is the view from the top. One of the caches was in a large rock formation on the steep side of the hill. It was in a cave-like setting that a brown bear used for his winter nap earlier this year. Rattlesnakes have also been seen at this location - something I did not mention to Bill until AFTER our hike!

Another cache was at an entrance to the park - just off a cul-de-sac in a very nice neighborhood. The directions said the cache was small and very well camouflaged - so we had to look everywhere. I even kicked over a large pile of dog poop in case that was the great camo job! Off to the side of the trail were piles of branches carefully set to define the edge of private property. In one pile was a tree branch about 2 inches thick and 10 inches long. The cache owner had carefully cut a 2 inch piece off one end of the branch for a lid and drilled holes inside both pieces to set in a small plastic capsule. The cache logbook was in the capsule. I'm amazed we found it!

While hiking back to the car I found a potato shaped red rock with an opening at one end. The inside was hollow. I thought this would be the perfect camouflage for a micro-cache! I printed a logbook, rolled it up inside a plastic capsule that used to contain a fever thermometer and placed it inside the stone. Bill and I hiked to the top of the bluffs in Palmer Park and hid it under a tree just to the side of the trail.

We named our cache "Leverite" because when Bill hikes with his grandkids and they ask him what something is he answers "Leverite - leave 'er right there!" Our cache was published on http://www.geocaching.com/ at 6:44 p.m. and the first two cachers found it 31 minutes later at 7:15 p.m. Guess it wasn't as clever as I thought!

We have a beautiful bunch of 4 o'clocks that can't tell time as they don't begin to open until after 6 p.m. They are gorgeous first thing in the morning before the sun hits and they close for the day. This year we have yellow and red flowers. Some years we also have white - but you never know until they bloom.

As I was sitting here typing, it got very dark and windy. The thunder and lightening was loud and close. It started raining cats and dogs - and as is usual here in Colorado, it started to hail.

The hail was only pea-sized here but close by it was the size of golf and baseballs. The afternoon news special showed broken windows and dented cars. I know phones are ringing off their hooks at insurance companies all over Colorado Springs. We were lucky.