into the mountains

Rocky Mountain National Park is an hour's drive west on Hwy 34 thru Big Thompson Canyon. 10 days ago we took a spontaneous Sunday afternoon trip to Estes Park. We carried our binoculars and forgot the cameras. Halfway to the park we found 4 Bighorn Sheep standing at the edge of the highway !! Up the cliff were 5 more Bighorns watching the cars from above. It was amazing to see, and we had no camera.
Today we repeated the trip, driving into Rocky Mt Park as far as the road is plowed. We saw one Raven flying across a meadow. On this eastern edge of the Rockies the mountains are broad, rounded and well forested. The pine bark beetle has caused much damage and tree mortality in the park. As we were leaving Estes Park, returning to Hwy 34, a herd of Elk created an "Elk-jam" as the traffic came to a stop while a few of them crossed the road.

A winter snowstorm is forecast for tomorrow. We will stay in and make a pot of soup.

mid-November in Greeley

We have a loyal flock of House Finches and House Sparrows that visit the backyard feeders every morning for seeds. A Northern Flicker has come 3 or 4 times, but the squirrels always seem to eat the peanuts first. Migrating Juncos are a treat, 3 subspecies of the Dark-eyed Junco complex have been visiting: Pink-sided, Slate-colored, and Oregon.
....Today I joined a group birding trip looking for raptors across the plains. Red-taileds predominated, followed by Kestrels. 3 Ferruginous Hawks were seen sitting on phone poles, and one Prairie Falcon. Early afternoon became very windy and we cancelled visiting some reservoirs. In the winter Colorado birders study Gulls. Ring-bills are abundant. In much smaller numbers are California, Herring. and Lesser Black-backed. A few Thayer's Gulls have been reported.
....Most of the boxes in the house have been emptied and contents have been shelved. Important items like power strip surge protectors and connecting cables for electronic devices are coming to light. Boxes in the garage and downstairs storage room have last priority. Each piece of furniture has been moved into its appointed place, and more rooms are being painted.
The snow from the early Nov storm melted within a week, and we were able to finish raking leaves in the yard.
...I haven't taken any new photos in nearly 3 weeks. These photos are from October . Job seeking efforts continue.

The first week

We moved into the house in Greeley CO on Tuesday, Nov 1 with help from members of Nina's church. We are grateful. During the unloading of trucks a snowstorm arrived, and continued into the night. In the morning 10 inches of snow covered the ground, trees, streets, etc. And we still had to return the BIG trucks to Budget !!
My Silver truck sat for 2 weeks in her friend's yard and started up well after we shoveled a path to the road. Hooray for a new battery this summer in Jackson.
........Settling in is taking awhile. So many boxes. She wants to re-paint some of the rooms. We hope to have Internet by the end of the week. She has 6 "shepherd's crooks" hangers for the backyard. I erected all 6 of them and hung as many bird feeders as I could find. Now we have 4 fat, well-fed squirrels and no birds have visited the yard.
.....I did my first exploration this morning, driving north to the small town of Nunn and following a report of Longspurs. The grasslands reminded me of central valley California where I used to go birding. Horned Larks were present in abundance, but no Longspurs. The surprise of the morning was a probable Rough-legged Hawk soaring in circles looking for breakfast.
......Photos of Silver truck, Fuji bike and Dolphin on the roof, and of Nina's backyard the next morning.

the BIG move

From AZ saguaros to Colorado cottonwoods. Friday mid-day we picked up the 2 rental trucks in Tucson. One truck is towing a trailer with Nina's car on it. Despite my complete lack of experience with large trucks, they handed me the keys to a diesel truck with a 24 foot box behind, and sent us out into Tucson traffic. These trucks are enormous !! The cab is big and has landscape visibility.
Strong young men from Nina's church arrived on Saturday morning and loaded the 2 trucks with all her furniture, many boxes, and 2 bicycles. After lunch we drove away, north on Hwy 19 to Hwy 10 east. I wasn't very good with that BIG truck Saturday afternoon and evening. We finally arrived in Deming, New Mexico at 9:30 pm. Sunday morning we had our first mis-hap, the trailer nearly came off her truck. It had been hooked-up, detached, and re-attached during the loading of the trucks. The final attachment had not been secured. It could have been very serious. After waiting for awhile a very competent mechanic came from Silver City and put everything back together.
We went on to Las Cruces and north on Hwy 25. I was becoming much better with the truck. When pulling into a gas station or truck stop we needed to have alot of room for turning corners. Its also important to remember the trucks are 12 ft 6 in in height. That evening we stopped in Santa Fe. I was able to do a few 3-point turns to get the truck into position alongside a semi-truck in the motel's truck parking area.
New Mexico is very dry. Rio Grande River in southern NM is low, Cottonwood trees south of Socorro look dry and dusty, altho some are turning yellow. We did not stop at the good birding place, Bosque del Apache, because of driving the BIG trucks.
In 1995 I worked on a research project near Raton, NM, looking at the effect of Cowbird parasitism on nesting birds. This area is in the high grass plains with scattered junipers and cedars.
Southern Colorado looked equally dry. Two or 3 times we passed old wooden cabins with Cottonwoods on two sides. Photogenic, but we didn't stop much on Monday.
Photos of a Crested Saguaro, and Karen with BIG truck.