Colorado 2008 - week one

BOULDER

[You can't get much bolder!]


Boulder - Colorado - January 2008

Day 1 -Monday, January 14^th

A day of travel. I leave Chifley at 0730 when Jim Nancarrow drives me to Canberra airport to catch my flight to Sydney and following a 3 hour wait in the departure lounge at Kingsford Smith International I continue my journey across the Pacific to Los Angeles where I transfer again to a flight that takes me to the new airport at Denver. I do this after clearing US customs in LA which, for the first time in my experience, was done very swiftly. However, this followed half an hour sitting in the plane on the tarmac before we were allowed to disembark because the customs hall did not open until 8 AM! Denver airport is very spacious and clean and the baggage hall is reached by a short train ride! We arrived about 40 minutes late but David meets me almost immediately I have recovered my two pieces of hold luggage and we head home. All I see of birds on the way to Boulder are some flocks of Canada Geese and a few flights of ducks that I do not identify but presume are most likely Mallard. Due to crossing the dateline and heading east I arrive in Denver at about 3PM on the same day that I started but the time between departure from home and arrival in Denver was much greater! It’s a long haul and very tiring, mostly from being cramped up in airplanes for a whole day.

View along the South Boulder Creek Trail

Day 2 - Tuesday, January 15^th

Shortly after 9AM I take a morning walk along the nearby South Boulder Creek trail. The sky was grey and there was a chill breeze from the west. While James was at pre-school from 8:30 until 11:30AM Tracey could take the opportunity to visit the swimming pool at the sports centre and I could continue my walk to the end of the trail with Alice the dog and then walk slowly home to the house in Cherryvale Road. The setting was rural and the conditions cold, bleak and wintry. Patches of snow remained here and there, mostly frozen as ice. Lines from the old Christmas carol “In the bleak mid winter, Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone, Snow had fallen, Snow on snow……..” certainly came to mind as I strolled past patches of tall teazel alongside the path and sometimes extending out into the brown pastures. The soil is hard frozen at these times of the year.

Groups of Canada Geese moved about in small flocks or grazed well out in the fields, often amongst the cattle. Pairs and small flocks of Mallard occasionally wheel overhead. There is not much open water about with most pools iced over. It is very bleak with few birds out and about but I did pick up a couple of Black-capped Chickadee and some Dark-eyed Junco foraging in the shrubs and trees along the creek and an adult Bald Eagle flew past early during the walk. Some Starling were seen in small winter flocks and one American Kestrel and two Red-tailed Hawk, one of the latter was an adult with rufous tail and the other was a pale immature without any red in the tail but with a distinctive grey head. A solitary Black-billed Magpie was seen on the back of a resting cow and a Northern Flicker called from high up among the branches of stark leafless trees at two different locations. These few birds more or less completed the full list of what I encountered in an hour or so of walking. Certainly not a lot.

We go out to lunch and then drive to a small reserve called Waldon Pond which is between Jay Street and Valmont Street and west of N75th Street. All of the wetland was frozen with only a group of Canada Geese resting on the ice and a few dozen Ring-billed Gull. In a paddock nearby I spot three Canada Geese with green neck collars amongst a group of about 15 geese. The collar codes were: A5C5; A4C5 and A4C8.

Day 3 - Wednesday, January 16^th

A day spent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Tracey and James. This museum has some very impressive wildlife dioramas, numerous dinosaurs on display and extensive space sciences exhibits. James was fascinated by the Phoenix Mars Mission now on its way to the planet. There was a replica of the landing craft in the Morrison Atrium and James watched the NASA video of this mission several times over

Wolves. One of the best of the dioramas in my opinion

Mountain Goats and a Gyrfalcon

A much less satisfactory effort; not a very convincing pose for a displaying Superb Lyrebird and the King Parrots and Crimson Rosella in the background (not visible here) were terribly faded

Another unsatisfactory pose but this time of Royal Albatross on Campbell Island.
Wing posture is totally unrealistic, including that of the flying bird in the mural

I didn't realize that Pink-eared Ducks could be so large! An Edmontosaurus.
What an incredible anatomical match except for the distal nasal orifices- if that is what they are

James in the Dinosaur gallery

A gazelle-like camelid!

The Phoenix Mars mission landing module


James taking in the NASA video describing the Phoenix mission to Mars

T. Rex on the prowl in the foyer!

Mr Bones.
The terrible T. Rex prowling the foyer of the Denver Museum to the amusement of the children!

Hoards of Canada Geese were grazing the lawns of the parkland surrounding the museum buildings, often coming extraordinarily close to their public! On the way home I saw a Raven and just about the only other birds seen today were Starling and a few gulls, presumably Ring-billed Gull, and a few Feral Pigeons about town! There really is very little to see most of the time.

Flocks of Canada Geese grazing outside the Denver Museum.
Some worn green coded neck collars but they were too far off to read without binoculars!

Day 4 - Thursday, January 17^th

James at the school gate

James at pre-school. He heads straight for the kitchen!

At 08:30 this morning we took James to his pre-school across the road and then Tracey and I went into town to have morning tea and coffee at the Tajikistan Dushanbe {doo-shan-bay}Tea House before visiting the Boulder Historical Museum. This tea house is a remarkable building. Dushanbe is the capital city of Tajikistan and the tea house was a gift organized by the mayor of Dushanbe in celebration of the link between that city and Boulder as sister cities. All the decorations for this building are in traditional styles and were created by artisans working from several cities in Tajikistan in the period 1987-90. The end products were then transported to Boulder.

In the Boulder Historical Museum I discovered an Edison disc player that was very similar to the machine in my own collection but with an oak wood cabinet in much better condition than mine. It did not seem to have a full collection of discs and had two drawers inside the front door for storing discs rather than storing them on a rack that is the layout of mine. It also had a patterned cloth backing to the fretwork front unlike the green baize that I have added in the restoration my machine, which I have the impression is not as tall as this one in Boulder. There was much in the museum about early life in Colorado; buffalo; gold mining and the settling of Boulder. All this was housed in a fine Victorian style building on the hill in the older part of Boulder.

The Edison disc player

After collecting James from school I took a walk with Alice, the dog, while Tracey and James went to the Sports Centre. It was bitterly cold (about 18F) and I found that 45 min. walking along part of the South Boulder Creek trail back to Baseline road was enough, especially because I was trying to take photographs with an increasingly cold camera! The good thing was that the 400D did not fail me but my fingers got numbingly cold. Groups of Canada Geese were seen either in the fields or flying overhead and some flocks of Mallard were doing much the same. Just about the only other birds observed included half a dozen American Crow squabbling about in the creek, which was now frozen, an American Kestrel, a male, first seen in hot pursuit of a rather nice Northern Shrike, a Northern Flicker, a few Feral Pigeon and, as usual, some Starling. Pretty depressing really apart from the shrike! Earlier today I had seen two Black-billed Magpie in the garden next door and I have some shots of the squirrels that daily come to the bird feeder in the back yard, much to Alice’s annoyance. These I take to be Eastern Fox Squirrel Sciurius niger despite their rather shaggy ear tips. They are too big and too rusty on the belly and throat to be Red Squirrel.

Eastern Fox Squirrel

Canada Geese

American Kestrel

Teazel

Day 5 -Friday, January 18^th

James reading about Space and contemplating the idea of an asteroid collision being linked to the extinction of dinosaurs!

A sluggish day for me. Light snow began to fall by mid afternoon. Early in the morning a Red Fox scurried across the back yard and shortly afterwards I saw a Townsend’s Solitaire in one of the large trees in the back garden and a Steller’s Jay. Not a lot to report from the rest of today. In the late afternoon I visited the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History with Tracey and James website: http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/

Triceratops skull

A Pterosaur

A sabre-toothed carnivor

A small but interesting museum with an excellent Paleontology hall showing off a small but quality collection of fossil material, including some good dinosaur pieces. Another gallery housed an old fashioned but traditional array of cabinet displays with stuffed birds and mammals along with specimens of reptiles and insects etc., mostly chosen to be relevant to the State of Colorado. The Anthropology Hall examines how Colorado University researchers work to understand the lives and traditions of Ancient Puebloan, Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi peoples in the American Southwest. An abundance of sandals, pottery, and tools are on display from archaeological sites, including Olsen-Chubbick, Yellowjacket, and Canyon de Chelley (from the website). Finally, I took a quick look at a special exhibition entitled “Temple of the Warriors. Rebuilding a Mayan Monument”. The following is from the museum website:

In 1924, a major restoration project began in the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá. A team assembled by the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. ventured into the jungles of the Yucatan to reconstruct the spectacular monument known as The Temple of the Warriors. Among the teams illustrious members were noted archeologists Ann and Earl Morris. Working side by side over 4 long field seasons, the couple helped make archeological history with their innovative work in reclaiming the great stone structure.

"…of all the places I have been and all the things I have seen, nothing exceeds in interest and romance the years I spent in the steaming Yucatan jungles where great white temples rise from tangled deep green forests." — Ann Morris

The project was documented from beginning to end, greatly expanding what was known of the Maya at the time. The magnificence of the site and thoughtful execution of the work can be seen in unique images from the University of Colorado Museum's historic collection of hand-painted glass lantern slides. The personal accounts of Ann and Earl in the exhibit help transport visitors to the site and daily life. They reveal the challenges and inspirations of working in the remote jungles of the Yucatan in the shadow of one of the greatest ancient civilizations found in the western hemisphere.

The task was enormous, the science was demanding and the results remain astounding.

By mid evening the snow was falling steadily and we might have a very white day tomorrow!

Day 6 - Saturday, January 19^th

Pre-school across the road. A short walk for James!

First thing today I took pictures in the snow! Overnight there was a good sprinkling of leaving a light cover that makes the surrounding landscapes crisp and photogenic.

Trees across the road

Front of the house

Back of the house

Snow sculpture in the fir tree

A panorama of the back garden at the Cherryvale Road house

Another view of the house front

View towards the Flatirons from South Boulder Creek Trail

Along the trail

More Teazel!

David and the dog on the South Boulder Creek Trail

Some of the high flying Canada Geese

I walk the first part of the South Boulder Creek trail with David and Alice the dog. Not much to see with respect to birds but I am a little surprised to see that on the ridge of high ground to the east, between Cherryvale road and the shore of Baseline Reservoir, a group of about 20 decoy Canada Geese, in sitting postures, set out along the skyline and at least two guns are preparing to shoot at any real geese stupid enough to think of pitching in! A few volleys are fired at an obviously ridiculous range when a small skein or two fly high overhead, honking loudly once shot at, but I see no hits!

In the afternoon we visit the Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art. As the blurb says this museum

“exhibits over 300 original paintings and bronze sculptures from the private collection of Edward P. Trumble, chairman and founder of Leanin’ Tree. Through the years, Trumble has traveled widely, meeting artists painting the great beauty and history of the American West, and collected their works. We invite you to come and view this magnificent private collection, unique in that it is the only major collection of privately held works of American Western art that is free and open to the public for viewing! Visit the museum on-line at www.LeaninTreeMuseum.com today!”

Bison, Horse, Jack Rabbit and Timber Wolf

Outside are some interesting sculptures and inside a large display of ‘western style’ paintings and sculptures depicting cowboy and Indian themes and the wild west. The company specializes in postcards printing and has done so very successfully since 1949, relying mainly on mail order in the first place. An odd but interesting experience. I did like several fine examples of wildlife art, in particular a picture of three elk at dawn with the condensation of their breath backlit by the early sunlight. A very well executed piece. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in the galleries. We have a late afternoon tea at the Boulder Café on the way home.

On the way to the Leanin Tree Museum I realized that either side of the Diagonal freeway there were many Black-tailed Prairie Dog Cynomys ludovicianus 'towns'. Some were close by the roadside and many Prairie Dogs were visible standing beside their burrow mounds.

Day 7 - Sunday, January 20^th

Entrance to Denver Botanic Gardens

A bright and sunny day today. An American Robin and a Townsend’s Solitaire visit the pool in the back garden early today. David heads out to Chicago, Dublin and London over the next few days and Tracey, James and I go into Denver to have a look at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Very well worth a visit and beautifully laid out displays with a fine Tropical house including a cloud forest exhibit. Many orchids are in flower. The theme is worldwide but there is much from the local flora and from South America and also from south-east Asia particularly Borneo and the Philippines. Not a lot of Australian flora represented. Formal sections are very attractively presented and in summer the extensive water features must be impressive. Now they are more or less all frozen!

Inside the Tropical Conservatory

Calliandra sp

Inside the Cloud Forest Tree annex. Heaps of orchids in here!

Some spectacular orchids

Heliconium sp

An Arum Philodendron glaucophyllum

Hoya macgillivrayi

Shady Lane

Montane Garden

Water Garden features

Romantic Garden

View to the side of the Perennial walk

After leaving the gardens we go back to the area of park surrounding the Denver Museum and I get some reasonable shots of Canada Geese from the car window. Some flocks of these geese are so unconcerned that they walk the streets, graze the central reservations and are passed by pedestrians and cyclists as close as 2 metres from them! A bit different from the flocks in the fields near Cherryvale road and Baseline Reservoir that need to be wary.

Canada Geese outside East Denver High

Unconcerned Canada Geese!

Canada Geese grazing close to the kerb!

On the way to Denver and back I also realize that I had not spotted just how many Black-tailed Prairie Dog 'townships' were to be seen while driving the freeway. I must try to get some pictures of these creatures. Apparently, this species sometimes become dormant for short periods during cold weather but it does not hibernate as does the other living species, the White-tailed Prairie Dog Cynomys gunnisoni. It is the Black-tailed Prairie Dog with which the highly endangered Black-footed Ferret Mustela nigripes is closely associated. However, I believe the Black-footed Ferret does not now occur in any of these Boulder region 'towns' and has not yet been re-introduced.

The snow cover has by now almost returned to the condition I saw on arrival a week ago!