Have you noticed an increase locallly in some of your favorite eastern U.S. songbirds? Species with an affinity for deciduous woodlands have been increasing in Colorado, including Boulder County.

In early spring, sparrows, siskins, finches, and other seed-eating birds flock to our backyard feeders, stocking up on calories to fuel nesting activities.  Meanwhile, neighborhood fox squirrels are busy providing milk and nuts for their first brood of young, and there’s hardly anything more attractive to fox squirrels than bird feeders.

One benefit of these frigid, snowy days is the opportunity to get close to Ferruginous and Rough-legged Hawks.  When temperatures are hovering near zero, raptors would rather stay put on their perches than fly away.

In late October we took a stroll down Forsythe Canyon, one of several forested drainages just west of Gross Reservoir.  The canyon floor glowed with fall color: golden leaves of aspen and box elder, fiery wild rose, clumps of tender blue spruce needles scattered on the ground beneath pine squirrel nest trees.