Reflections

It's been a good year.
I've spent time enjoying God's creation.Camping in beautiful Colorado with my family.
Celebrating with family.
(Front:Me, Anna, Mom, Ruth, Mary, Justin, Maggie, all but Mom & me of course, are my children. Rear: Al, BIL-John, Sister-Lauren, Dad.)
Running the wrong way down an up escalator at the San Diego Zoo and getting away with it.
(my rockin' hot husband Al and dau. Maggie)
Enjoying my dogs lovin' life.
Winnie
Enjoying my dogs winning occasionally!
Food, family and fun.
(dad, sons Cyrus and Justin, daus. Maggie and Anna)
Meeting new friends.
Me and Annette - a sweet Twitter friend.
More fun with kids and dogs.
Peace and quiet too.
Beautiful sunrises from our patio.
Fun with friends at the Denver Botanical Gardens
Vern & Mary

Life bird dances on tops of mountains.
Kathleen, Lauren, Becca.
And naps in the sun.
Yes, it's been a good year. And next year, if I were to make a resolution, it would be to have more of the same.

And for me personally. I'm trying again. The weight thing. I'd love to lose 70 pounds tomorrow, but I'm realistic enough to know that won't happen.

So how about 35 pounds gone? This year? Yeah. That's a good goal. No guilt, just something to aim for.


And in the meantime, I'm thankful for the love of God, my husband, my family and friends.

For without that, there wouldn't be life, would there?

Love and Blessings and Happy New Year to you all.

Connie

My Top 20 Birds of 2010

When I look back at all the wonderful birds I've seen this past year - it was hard to only pick out 20. But here you go.

This lovely Magnificent Hummingbird visited our feeder set up at a campground along the Laramie River. It visited several times in a 90 minute time span - looking like a 747 amongst Piper Cubs.The Northern Flicker. I just love this bird in all it's variations.
White-winged Junco. Most of you know of my junco addiction. It was very fulfilling to stumble upon a flock of these beauties recently.
Um.. well.. My first Colorado Bear.
A fantastic Three-toed Woodpecker. Simply not an easy bird to find.
Ooh, Dusky Grouse. It was a miracle we actually saw this bird.
Mountain Chickadees nesting. In the base of a Ponderosa Pine tree. Sweet.
Western Tanager. Tell me why this is NOT the Colorado State bird?
Great Horned Owl chicks. Don't mess with us, they seem to say. What a treat.
Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan. Ptarmigan. White-tailed Ptarmigan to be exact. Took our breath away this bird did.
While in California - I ventured into the Anza-Borrego Desert. California Quail.
And Lawrence's Goldfinch. Wowy Zowy.
Along with a lifer Scott's Oriole.
Back on the coast - A Gorgeous Brant.
With some stunning Heereman's Gulls.
I had a chance to visit the Western Slope, Cedaredge specifically, and set out to find Pinyon Jays:
A classic Scrub Jay..
and some very entertaining and busy Bushtits.
Out on the Prairie we spotted this beautiful Burrowing Owl.
Scott Rashid shared some lovely Long-eared Owls.
Back near home - A Loggerhead Shrike having lunch.It has been a fun birding year. I wonder what next year will bring?

Gardening in December

Admittedly, it's been a mild fall now winter so far. But my first year experiment with hoop houses is happily successful. We've had 12 degree nights. I opened my beds on Christmas Day. Here you can see the inner wire hoops I added which supports the light, floating row cover that stays over the veges. This Romaine Lettuce and Spinach is still doing great.We ate a tasty fresh salad from this bed last night. Neither veggie is growing much at present, but they are maintaining their freshness and not freezing.
On December second I planted several things. If you look carefully in the picture below, you can see spinach seedlings! On December 25th! Crazy.
My bunching onions are holding well also. We are about to get a winter storm - due today actually. So we'll see how things hold up. I only wish I had planted these beds full! But I have really been enjoying having a winter harvest of fresh vegetables. And now that the daylight is creeping up, things will begin to grow again.
Excuse me, but I have to go and plant seeds in my garden.
In December.

Then I discovered the prairie, and a slow healing began.

- Stephen R. Jones, The Last Prairie (2000), Ragged Mountain Press, Camden, ME

Prairie Sunrise
A friendly rancher's sign to welcoming folks to enjoy his land. Birders are included, but not listed.
I participated in the Fort Morgan / Weldona Christmas Bird Count recently. I've been in Colorado a long time, but only in the last few years have gotten to know the prairie side of the state. It's quite beautiful.

We walked down both sides of this draw, finding Virginia Rail, Lincoln's Sparrow, Eastern Bluebirds.

Closer to the river we came upon this piece of handywork. Somebody's been very, very, busy.

After covering the ranch we headed north into a wide open land. Mostly farmed, but we did find a few fields that weren't. I think this was corn stubble.

The team I was with was very gracious about stopping for me to take pictures of interesting grasses.

And another.

We found this lovely Townsend's Solitaire in a prairie neighborhood.

I also like taking pictures of nests I see. I wasn't sure who made this one. One of you must know!

I was delighted by a lovely flock of Eastern Bluebirds who showed themselves in a Russian Olive tangle.

Can you see this fellow? I haven't seen these birds very often here on the front range of Colorado. C'mon, can you see him? Ring-necked Pheasant eyeball.
We had some very interested observers, but they wouldn't share the birds THEY saw so we could add them to the count.

A Goldfinch and a Pine Siskin extracting the last few seeds from these wild sunflowers.

HEY! Can we count THESE birds? They're the state bird of Rhode Island after all.

I love Downy Woodpeckers. They're always somewhere. This little bird was deep in the brushy tangle of some very large weeds tapping away.