Month: September 2014

Posted on in Birding Trips, Hotspots

Fall Birding, Part 3

Eurasian Collared Dove-CO_LAH_2386_fLast Chance. It sounds as if it’s a small town in the middle of nowhere, and that’s about right. Situated at the intersection of Colorado Highways 71 and 36 (the same road that goes to Boulder, some hundred miles to the west) we found several houses, a fire station, and a church, along with some abandoned buildings piled with broken furniture and other castoffs.

The big draw is a small roadside rest (complete with portable “facilities”) right next to a small pond surrounded by green shrubs and some trees. It’s a birder’s dream. Surrounded as it is by miles of dry fields, the tiny riparian area at Last Chance is a migrant trap.

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Posted on in Veggies

Two Pestos You’ll Love

Basil @DBG LAH 175Summer is ending. For the past month, my potted basil plants have been doing their best to flower. I know that if I let them go to seed, they would die, so I’ve been pinching off the buds. However, now our nights are dipping into the 40s—too cold for these tropical annuals. Even if they don’t freeze, the chill turns the leaves black—not very appetizing. I’ve hauled the plants inside, but I can’t postpone the inevitable. It’s time to make pesto.

There’s no aroma quite like that of freshly made pesto, and that’s exactly what my kitchen smells like right now. I have two favorite pesto recipes, and I’d like to share them with you so your kitchen can smell this amazing too.

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Posted on in Birding Trips

Fall Birding, Part 2

(Continued from last week’s post about the Colorado Field Ornithologists’ (CFO) 2014 convention.)

Yellowlegs_JacksonLakeSP-CO_LAH_2104Leading up to the CFO convention, which happened over Labor Day weekend, forecasters were calling for weather in the high 90s. It was a delightful surprise to discover that their predictions were wrong. Instead of sweltering under the hot prairie sun, we enjoyed days in the low 80s, with scattered clouds (and one rapidly-moving thunderstorm). What a relief to be focused on the birds instead of the heat!

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Posted on in Gardening, Plant Profiles

September is for Rudbeckias

Rudbeckia - Black-eyed Susan_XG_20090826_LAH_9669Summer ends this weekend, but late-blooming flowers are far from finished. One can’t help but notice the conspicuous school-bus-yellow daisies, known as Black-eyed Susans, which thrive along our Colorado roadsides. (Most are Rudbeckia hirta, but other species also grow here.) Happily for us gardeners, there are cultivated forms of Rudbeckia that continue to brighten our home landscapes well into autumn.

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Posted on in Birding Trips

Fall Birding

Vesper Sparrow_RamahSWA-CO_LAH_1899-001Imagine that every bird you see is brown. Little brown jobs. Big brown jobs. Streaky, plain, identical. They’re no longer in their bright (and easily identified) breeding duds. Rather, they’re playing hard to see—and hard to identify.

Now imagine that they’re all far, far away—at the water’s edge on the far side of the reservoir, waaay out in the field, sitting on that distant fence rail—and if you try to sneak up for a closer look, they fly away.

And finally, imagine that an entire summer’s worth of baby birds have all left their nests and joined the crowd, sporting their juvenile plumage.

Got it? That’s the downside challenge of fall birding.

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Posted on in Gardening, Landscaping, Soils, Surviving Winter, Veggies, Weeds

Putting Your Garden to Bed

I first posted this back in 2009, but (with one exception, below) my advice hasn’t changed. While I‘m off looking for migrating warblers today, you should be out in your garden. Here’s why:

  • carrot-sleeping-in-bedSpending time now on chores such as weeding and garden cleanup will reward you many times over when spring arrives.
  • Amending your soil this fall will give you a head start on next year’s garden.
  • Fall is also a great time to build a new patio or raised bed.
  • Protecting your less-hardy plants will increase the odds of them surviving a Colorado winter.
  • Winter’s cold weather is a great time to read articles, take classes, and prowl the Internet to become a more knowledgeable gardener.
  • And the most pressing issue? The weather gurus are predicting snow tonight and/or tomorrow!

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Posted on in Gardening, Humor, Plant Profiles

Plant Quiz Answers

DBG_LAH_1264If you haven’t tried to identify the plants in my quiz, back up to last Thursday and try your hand before reading any further.

So, how did you enjoy trying to ID various random plants from a photo or two? I think it’s fun, which is why I love my job. Sometimes I know the answer off the top of my head (number 1, for example) while others have me tearing my hair out while I track them down (such as number 8).

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