Today, with the summer weather and the lack of school, I decided to take my car over to what I like to call the "Bird of Prey Route," a little dirt road in between Superior and Boulder about ten minutes from my house here in Colorado. You can usually see at least one or two different types of raptors there, and there are a number of other awesome animals that I have spotted there, as well! Today, I saw a lot of really cool birds, as well as some babyprairie dogs, as you can see below!
This particular species of prairie dog is the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus). Like the other species of prairie dog, the black-tail is a highly social little rodent. Below you can see two pups "kissing" each other, a type of interaction that members of the same family group will employ. I think this is just to help solidify familial bonds, but I'm not sure if anybody knows for certain.
Today, the bird of prey route did not disappoint! Perched in the tree in the picture below is the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), definitely the raptor that I see most often when on the route.
I also saw a pair of American kestrels (Falco sparverius), the species of raptor that I see second most often. I don't usually see the kestrels so close together, however, so perhaps this was a mated pair. I did see one of them fly into a hollow in a tree, which might be where a nest is hidden away!
As I was watching the hollow in the tree where the American kestrel swooped off into, I noticed several European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) flying into other hollows on the tree. Then I realized that the angle of one of the hollows was just right, and that I could actually see the adult starling feed its young! If you zoom in on the picture, you can see that the baby already looks pretty big, maybe even as big as the parent!
Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia) are especially abundant in the area, and I saw several of them as well.
This magpie looks like it is molting!
Now this particular tree presents a particularly provocative puzzle, as it is almost completely covered in some very sharp looking thorns. A few weeks ago, I saw another tree, much larger than this one, along the banks of Boulder Creek that had some enormous thorns on its branches as well, some of them easily six inches long, and super sharp on the end! I don't know for certain what kind of tree this, or the Boulder Creek tree, is, but a good candidate I think is the honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), or some other tree closely related to the honey locust. Below is the picture of the tree that I took on the Bird of Prey Route.
Here is a picture of the thorns of the honey locust tree.
And here is the picture that I took on my iPhone at Boulder Creek of this tree. The thorns look pretty similar to those of the honey locust, and I think that the trunk of the tree looks pretty similar, too.
Now why do these trees have such huge thorns? That's a really good question. I started answering (or at least trying to answer) the question here in this blog post, but everything rapidly started spiraling out of control and off focus as I started talking about giraffes, tiny squirrels, cheetahs, and extinct North Americanelephants. For those of you who know me, it should come as no surprise that I spiraled so quickly off topic. But regardless, what I had written ended up having enough material for at least three or more posts, so I have moved the answer to a different post, which I will hopefully be publishing soon. Keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, back to the future birds! Here, we see a pair of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) perched on a wire.
I'm not quite as sure about the identity of this particular bird. Also a swallow, I am thinking that it might be a violet-green swallow (Tachycineta thalassina).
I believe this to be a vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus).
A western kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis), another bird that I see all the time here, at least in the summer!
At last, we have one of the most exciting birds that I saw on the route today, the blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea), a bird that I don't remember ever seeing before!
Remember to check back soon to learn all about those massively spiky trees!
Works Cited:
Robbins, C. S., Bruun, B., & Zim, H. S. (1983). Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press.
Stokes, D. W., & Stokes, L. Q. (2010). The Stokes field guide to the birds of North America. New York: Little, Brown.
Last Monday, a snow storm hit Colorado....in the middle of May. Although it snowed even as much as sixteen inches in some places, it melted pretty quickly afterwards, leaving an excellent opportunity for many birds that rely on insects for their meals. After a rain, you can often see birds like the American robin or flicker foraging around (click HERE to read more), using the soft ground to their advantage to try and catch insects that were washed up out of the ground. After the snow, it seems like a number of birds were attempting to do the same thing. As I was closing up, I looked out behind the Morrison Natural History Museum, and noticed a bonanza of birds! I ran downstairs and grabbed my camera, and tried to get some good shots. Here, we have a male western bluebird (Sialia mexicana), perching on one of the blocks of sandstone from the historic Quarry 5 in Morrison. This block contains dinosaur bone, making it ironic that the bluebird, a dinosaurian descendant itself, perched upon the block.
There were plenty of American robin (Turdus migratorius) running around, and got a few shots of them!
As we talked about in a PREVIOUS POST, winter causes many birds, including the American robin, to decrease their territoriality, and flock together.
There were several lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) hopping around. The lark bunting is actually the state bird of Colorado!
A European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) probes the ground.
There were several more male and female western bluebirds flitting around, and I got some pictures of them that I really like! Below is a female perched on the fence next to the Jurassic Garden!
A male perched on a fence. Notice the sexual dimorphism displayed here; the male displays much more vibrant plumage than does the female.
A female perched near my car!
Sometimes, I am really, really bad at identifying birds. Below are two pictures of birds that I think I have identified correctly, but am not positive. The first I think is a picture of a pair of chipping sparrows (Spizella passerina).
This one gave me a bit more trouble. I think this bird is either a western wood-pewee (Contopus sordidulus) or a least flycatcher (Empidonax minimus).
Finally, a yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata)!
Works Cited:
Robbins, C. S., Bruun, B., & Zim, H. S. (1983). Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press.
Stokes, D. W., & Stokes, L. Q. (2010). The Stokes field guide to the birds of North America. New York: Little, Brown.
You guys have heard of Anne Price from the Raptor Education Foundation (REF) before: she's the one who brings all of the awesome birds of prey to the raptor shows at the Best Western Denver Southwestdinosaur hotel! Eager to learn more about some of the raptors that live here in Colorado during the winter, and how the change in weather affects the birds behavior! She was nice enough to oblige, and the answers were definitely very interesting! So after you check out the REF website HERE and like their Facebook page HERE, please join me in welcoming Anne Price, Curator of Raptors at the Raptor Education Foundation!
Anne Price with a prairie falcon at the Best Western Denver Southwest!
1. What raptors are you likely to see if you live along the Front Range here in Colorado?
The big four hawks are: red-tailed hawk (year round), Swainson’s hawk (April through early October), rough-legged hawk (October through March), and Ferruginous hawk (year round, but rare on front range in summer months). Turkey vultures in spring, bald eagles in winter, golden eagles, Cooper’s hawks and American kestrels year-round, turkey vultures and osprey from March through October. There are more species around but these are the most likely to be seen by the average birder.
A red-tailed hawk at another one of the raptor shows at the Best Western!
2. What raptors have migrated away that you would be able to see along the Front Range during the summer?
Turkey vultures and Swainson’s hawks.
Anne Price holding a turkey vulture!
3. What special behavior, such as courtship rituals or other behaviors like that, can you observe in raptors during December and January along the Front Range?
You may see red-tailed hawks and bald eagles start to sit next to each other in trees or along telephone poles. The big excitement comes from great-horned owls, which will begin courtship calling (hooting back and forth) in the middle of the night, starting around Christmas Day.
Anne holding a great-horned owl!
4. Do the raptors at the REF change their behavior at all during the winter? If so, how do they change?
Our birds eat more, so we feed them more to put on just a bit more fat for the cold weather. Our two Swainson’s hawks get feisty and start stealing food because their metabolism is telling them that they need to bulk up for a long migration ahead. I always let them gain 1-3 oz during this transition so they are ready for the cold, which came early this year and was REALLY cold. Our female golden eagle will also start gaining weight and developing a brood patch as she gets ready to lay her eggs in early March. She has gained 9 oz just in the last 2 weeks!
5. Finally, I remember you mentioning the black streaks under the eyes of the prairie falcon as a glare reducing adaptation. What can you tell me about that?
It’s called the “malar stripe” or “malar mark.” It’s meant to reduce glare by having the sun strike or be concentrated in the area beneath the eye, leaving the area above in proper contrast. These are black or dark lines under the eyes of cheetahs, most falcons (gyrfalcons and merlins being notable exceptions). Even flickers have malar stripes, though in these birds they serve as signals for courtship, not for better visibility of prey species!
Which is why the Rockies and the Broncos do the same thing…….
A REF prairie falcon at the Best Western!
Thank you so much Anne for taking the time out of your schedule to answer some of our questions! I know I will definitely be on the lookout for these birds in the upcoming weeks, and hopefully everyone else will be, too! Make sure to check out the REF Facebook page HERE, as well as their website HERE. You can also come visit all the REF birds on Saturday, April 12 from 11am to 2pm! Admission is free and there will be giveaways and refreshments. RSVPs are kindly requested; please visit http://www.usaref.org/OpenHouse.htm. Thanks again, and keep an eye out for a follow-up post regarding those fascinating malar marks!
Rain makes lots of animals behave differently than they normally do. Many birds either take shelter or, like the American robin, head out to forage for drowning worms. The other day (and by other day, I mean several months ago, because I kept forgetting to post this post) during a rainstorm, I was walking with my friend Mona when we noticed a flicker stabbing repeatedly at the ground.
Here is a picture of the end result of what we were witnessing!
According to one source, the Puget Sound Backyard Birds, ants compose about 80% of a flickers diet, and foraging for this tasty insect snack is probably what the flicker was doing as it continually stabbed its beak into the ground! Even if it wasn't looking for ants, most of the flickers diet is insects. During the winter, when insects can become scarce, the flicker consumes berries and seeds. Certainly an unusual diet and foraging behavior for a woodpecker! Below is a video uploaded by Deepa Mohan of a flicker foraging for food. As you can see in the video, this flicker is foraging when the weather outside is not so frightful. I assume that perhaps the flicker we saw was active while it was raining both because the insects would be scurrying around trying to find safe ground, and also probably because the ground was softer than usual.
Like other woodpeckers, the flicker will nest in holes of trees, but will sometimes nest in the abandoned burrows of birds such as the belted kingfisher or the bank swallow, whose nests are located in holes within the earth. Below is a picture of a pair of belted kingfishers flying into their nest:
Flickers are pretty common where I live, and they seem to be pretty common throughout the United States! If you have any great flicker stories or pictures, make sure to send them in or comment below!
Where I live in Colorado, and in fact across much of North America, the American robin (Turdus migratorius) is a common sight, especially during the spring and summer. You can often find this bird hopping across the ground, rooting around in the ground for worms. However, this morning, on my walk across campus, I noticed a flock of about thirty or so robins in a random tree, and couldn't remember a time when I had seen so many robins in one place, not even close. What was going on?
Just like for a robin, a little digging proved fruitful....or should I say wormful? "The Great Backyard Bird Count" (GBBC) revealed that during the winter, the territoriality of the American robin decreases dramatically. Two graphs on the website, which I have included below, help us to understand what is going on. The first graph, titled "Percent Submissions With Positive Sightings," charts the number of people who see robins. As you can see, the peak months for robin sightings are between the months of April and July, with a peak in July. March, as well as August through October, are also pretty good times to see robins, but during the winter months between November and February, robins are not seen as often.
The second graph, titled "Average Number of Birds for Positive Sightings" charts how many robins people typically see together: i.e., if they report a robin sighting, they also report how many robins there were together. As you can see, April through September are definitely the worst months to see multiple robins together, with October through February being the best time, and a large peak in November.
Graphs are tough: what does this all mean in English? Essentially, during the breeding season (spring and summer), robins maintain strict territories, which causes them to spread out, with a more even distribution. This means that you would be more likely to see a robin on a walk through the park, but not several robins in the same place. During the winter, presumably because their breeding territories are simply too small for them to get enough food, and since it is no longer the breeding season, they abandon their territories, allowing different robins to go wherever they wish. For whatever reason, probably something to do with mutual protection, they also form flocks. The forming of flocks also causes the number of individuals per sighting to increase.
Another study conducted by the GBBC (read the full write-up HERE) pertained to snow depth and frequency of robin sightings. As you can see in the graph below, the likelihood of spotting an American robin with even just a little bit of snow drops quite dramatically. Similar results were reported for the red-winged blackbird, while birds such as the white-throated sparrow and northern flicker responded to increased snow depth as well, but not quite as dramatically.
For the robin, a bird that typically feeds on the ground, even just a little bit of snow cover might prove to be an issue. However, other ground-feeding birds, such as the dark-eyed junco, didn't seem to mind the snow anywhere near as much as the robin. GBBC suggested that other factors must affect the distribution of these birds, such as "weather, diet, and the species' normal range and altitudinal limits."
A subspecies of the dark-eyed junco called the gray-headed junco. I took this picture of the stuffed animal when we were in Ouray over the summer.
A picture of a dark-eyed junco that I took in my backyard.
The GBBC devotes a paragraph to acknowledge the uncertainties in these results, a humility that I find refreshing and, sadly, not too common on many Internet sources these days. GBBC looks at the graph below, plotting the snow depth against the likelihood of seeing a house finch, and notes the steady decline, as opposed to the sharp drop seen in the robin graph, or the lack of real pattern seen in the junco graph. GBBC reports that this would be a pattern not expected if it was access to the ground (or lack thereof) that was causing these birds to move. Instead, one would expect the sharp decline of the robin graph. Other factors, such as temperature, could be what is causing birds like the house finch or the house sparrow to move.
A male house sparrow.
A female house finch, silhouetted against the backdrop of the evening sky.
Works Cited:
"Snow Depth Survey." The Great Backyard Bird Count. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbcX/science-stories/past-stories/snow-depth-survey (accessed January 23, 2014).
Stokes, Donald, and Lillian Stokes. The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2010. (accessed January 23, 2014).
"Winter Robins." The Great Backyard Bird Count. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbcX/science-stories/past-stories/is-that-winter-flock-of-robins-in-your-yard-unusual/ (accessed January 23, 2014).
We've heard from Wayne Itano before, when he told us about the Kremmling Cretaceous Ammonite Locality in Colorado. (To read the post, click HERE.) A physicist at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Boulder, Colorado, Wayne also has a hobby interest in paleontology, and is a curator adjoint at the Natural History Museum of the University of Colorado. He has also been doing some very interesting work with a shark-like animal called Edestus, and he graciously agreed to answer a few questions for me regarding this creature! So please join me in welcoming Wayne Itano, as he tell us about this fascinating prehistoric creature!
The Natural World: You've been doing some work with an ancient shark-like creature called Edestus. What can you tell us about it?
Wayne Itano:Edestus is my candidate for the strangest shark of all time. In my opinion, it is even stranger than the better-known spiral-toothed Helicoprion, since it is harder to imagine how the teeth might have been used. (Read more about HelicoprionHERE.) Almost the only fossil remains of Edestus are its symphyseal (midline) tooth whorls, which consist of triangular, serrated teeth, joined together at the bases (roots).
Edestus had one tooth whorl in the upper jaw and one in the lower jaw. Since the whorls are bilaterally symmetric (same on the left side as on the right side), they must have been located in the middle of the jaws.
This is a photograph of a specimen of a species called Edestus mirus. It was found in Pennsylvanian-aged deposits (about 300 million years old) of Iowa.
This is a rare specimen, since it shows both the upper and lower tooth whorls.
The curvature of the tooth whorls makes it difficult to understand how they could have been used.
According to the conventional reconstruction, the two tooth whorls were used as scissors, to cut prey between the two whorls, as in this drawing by Ray Troll.
Scissor-tooth model for Edestus. Credit Ray Troll, www.trollart.com
To me, this model seems unlikely, given the curvature of the tooth whorls. It seems that the outer teeth are nonfunctional, since they can’t come together, so there would be no reason to retain them.
It seems to me that the teeth would be more efficiently used if the entire head was moved up and down, with jaws fixed, to slash large prey. This is a radically new idea. I have submitted an article for publication elaborating on this idea, but I expect that it may be some time before it gets into print.
New vertical-slashing model for Edestus. Drawing by Gary Raham, www.biostration.com, reproduced with permission of Wayne Itano
My new reconstruction of Edestus, showing the pair of symphyseal tooth whorls, in front, used for slashing prey, and flat teeth in the rear for crushing prey. Drawing by Gary Raham, www.biostration.com, reproduced with permission of Wayne Itano.
TNW: I noticed that you referred to Edestus as being a candidate for the "strangest shark of all time." Is Edestus truly a shark? If not, how do you classify it?
WI: I was using "shark" in an informal sense, as the term is not well-defined for many extinct fish. Edestus certainly falls within the class Chondrichthyes, which today comprises 2 subclasses - Elasmobranchii (sharks, including rays) and Holocephali (ratfish). There is some evidence that Edestus (and also Helicoprion) belong to an extinct line that is closer to the Holocephali than to the Elasmobranchii, but this is a matter of debate. It is safe to call Edestus a chondrichthyan, and I try to avoid the word "shark" when I write a technical paper, or maybe keep it in quotes. TNW: Tell us a little bit about your research.
WI: I am interested in many aspects of paleontology, but for the last 22 years I have focused on fossil sharks, particularly ones from the Paleozoic (older than about 250 million years ago). My interest in Paleozoic sharks dates from 1991, when I found a finspine of a Pennsylvanian-aged shark called Ctenacanthus in a roadcut near the town of McCoy, in Eagle County, Colorado. I wrote an article about this find for the newsletter of the Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS) in 1992, which you can read by clicking HERE.
Ctenacanthus finspine found near McCoy, Colorado. Scale in cm. Photo Credit: Wayne Itano
In trying to identify this finspine, I read everything I could find about Paleozoic sharks. Knowing of my interest in the topic, Professor Martin Lockley of the University of Colorado at Denver loaned me a large collection of shark teeth and finspines from McCoy that he and Karen Houck, also of CU Denver, had found in the 1980s. His paleontological interests had by then switched entirely to ichnology (footprints and other fossil traces), and he gave me the opportunity to write up the fossil shark specimens. I published an article on the finspines in 2003 with Houck and Lockley, which you can read HERE, but I haven’t finished with the teeth yet.
My interest in Edestus started when an amateur fossil collector showed me an unusual shark tooth that he had found at McCoy. After a bit of study, I realized that it was a tooth of Edestus, the first known from the entire Rocky Mountain region. This eventually led to my publishing a rather long paper on Edestus in 2012, again with Houck and Lockley, which you can read HERE.
TNW: Do you have any future expeditions or research papers in the works?
WI: Lately most of my “field work” has been in museum collections. In the last few years I have been able to view specimens in the collections of the Yale Peabody Museum, the Natural History Museum (London), the British Geological Society, the American Museum of Natural History (New York), and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. I have several publications in the works, largely based on fossil shark specimens I have seen in those collections.
One area is the taxonomy (classification) of Edestus species. About 15 species of Edestus have been named, but I think that many of these are synonymous. For example, people have named new species based on unusually small or large teeth, but I think they are just teeth of the same species of Edestus but of different ages. There may be as few as 3 valid species of Edestus.
I have another project where I am examining microscopic scratches on Edestus teeth. I am hoping that I can find feeding-related scratches and that their orientation will provide some clues as to whether the scissors-model or the up-down-slashing model is correct.
-Thank you so much, Wayne, for answering some of my questions! I look forward to hearing more about Edestus in the future! Thanks again!-
At the beginning of the semester, just a few months ago, I paid very little attention to the night sky. That all changed when I took the awesome Ancient Astronomies course at CU with professor John Stocke. Although I'm definitely not an expert, I've learned a lot, and I love sharing it with you guys. However, sometimes it can be tough to tell what exactly you are looking at, where you should look for something, or even how the sky changes throughout the day or year. Hopefully this post, as well as any others I make, can help you figure things out.*
To further assist you in your understanding, I made a video supplement to this post. Below is the video embedded within the post, but if for whatever reason that is not working, click HERE to check it out. I refer to it several times later on in the post, and it just makes things easier to understand. You can watch it as you read along.
First off, look at the picture below. In it, we see the Earth encased in a plastic globe with the constellations printed on it. For our purposes, that plastic globe with the constellations printed on it is called the celestial sphere. Inside the celestial sphere, you can see a tiny little yellow ball: the Sun. (I can't actually see it in this picture, but the Moon is probably inside the ball as well.) Is that how the universe looks then? Of course not. We've known for many, many years that the sun is neither that close in size or distance to the Earth. However, this model is how we can think of the night sky, especially when it comes to naked eye astronomy. It shows, from where you are on the Earth's surface, what constellations the Sun and the Moon are in, and what constellations you can see from your specific point on the planet.
A lot of the time in naked eye astronomy, we say things that mean one thing while they sound like another. Like what I just said: "what constellations the Sun and the Moon are in." If we were to look up at the night sky and see the Moon smack-dab in the middle of a constellation, we realize that the distance between the moon and the stars is actually much greater than what it initially appears. However, for our intents and purposes and to make things simpler, we just say "the Moon is in the constellation of...." Just like when we talk about the daily motion of the Sun. When we say that the Sun sets or rises, we realize that the Earth is the celestial body that is moving. But from an Earth-bound perspective, it doesn't look that way.
Before we go any further, it's time to meet a very important star: Polaris, the North Star. As you probably know, Polaris is called the North Star because it is situated directly to the north. This star sits almost exactly on something that is called the North Celestial Pole. Look back up at that globe for a second. See that metal bar that sticks right through the middle of the Earth? That's the Earth's axis of rotation, or how the Earth spins around. And see how that pole intersects with the celestial sphere? Those are the North and South Celestial Poles.
Confused? I thought you might be. I know I definitely was. Stand up, find someplace where you can safely spin around, and start to spin, looking straight out in front of you. After doing that a few times, look straight up. Notice how when you looked straight in front of you, everything seemed to move, and move pretty fast too. Now, when you look up at the ceiling, you can still see everything moving, but there is a single point that doesn't move at its center. That single point is the equivalent of the North Celestial Pole.
Now, let's look at the video that I made to accompany this post. We will start with "Part I: Polaris in Boulder". Part 1 shows how the celestial sphere spins around Polaris over the course of a single night. This part of the video takes place at 40° N, and is facing north. "Part II: The Equator" shows the spinning celestial sphere from the point of view of someone standing slightly north of the Equator, just far enough that they can still see Polaris. They are still facing north. "Part III: The North Pole" tracks the daily motion of the celestial sphere from the perspective of someone who is lying on their back and looking straight up, situated at the North Pole. Try and draw comparisons between what you see at the Equator and the North Pole; and what you saw while you were spinning and looking straight in front of you, and straight up. While you watch all three clips, notice how in each one there are some stars and constellations that never set, with the fewest being at the Equator and the most being at the North Pole. These stars and constellations are called "circumpolar."
So now it's time to introduce two different types of celestial motion: daily, and annual. Daily motion can really apply to anything in the night sky, and is what we've just been looking at. The three parts of the video taking place in Boulder, the Equator, and the North Pole were three views of daily motion at different locations on the planet. Even with the video to help guide you, it can be difficult to absorb, so this might be a good place to stop and absorb what you have learned.
Excellent. Now, on to the other main type of motion that we will discuss today: annual motion! Annual motion applies to the celestial objects that move over shorts amount of time (i.e. not thousands or millions of years) against the backdrop of the celestial sphere: the planets, including the Sun and the Moon. The motion of the moon amongst the heavens is arguably the most easily observed, as it changes constantly, and you can compare its relative position with that of the sun. A discussion of the moon and its phases will take up an entire post though, so we can do that later. For now, it's just important to recognize that the main objects that we see moving through the sky from night to night are the planets.
There are two such planets easily observable in the night sky right now, and I fear that as I am writing this it might already be too late for one. Venus and Jupiter are typically the brightest planets in the sky, with the former being quite variable in its brightest and degree of visibility throughout its journey around the sun. Again, a topic for another time. If it can still be seen in the night sky, however, look for Venus right after the Sun sets in the west.
I think I've used this picture like four times or something now, but it's the best one I've got. The Moon is in a waxing crescent phase above Venus as the Evening Star, the bright object between the Moon and the mountains. We will talk more about Venus and its varied locations in the morning and evening sky some other time. This picture was taken in early November here in Boulder.
So what did you hopefully learn in this post? This post was really just a rudimentary introduction to how the sky moves each night, also called daily motion. You should remember the term "North Celestial Pole," and remember that that is where Polaris is located. You also briefly learned about what it means to be a circumpolar stars or constellation. We just barely touched on annual motion, a topic we will delve into deeper later, as well as the phases of the moon. In the next Intro to Astronomy post, I will show you how to locate several celestial objects and constellations, including The Big Dipper, Polaris, Orion, and Jupiter. Until then, clear skies!
*I am writing from a latitude of about 40 degrees North, in Boulder, Colorado. The information in this post can apply to anyone within that belt around the world. For example, people in Beijing and Baltimore, both cities around 40 degree North latitude, will see the same thing every night as people in Bursa and Boulder.
Works Cited:
All of the videos here were made using footage from the excellent Stellarium app. Check it out, it's free!
Over the summer, my family and I took a driving trip to several sites in Colorado that we hadn't been to before, or at least not in awhile. I never got around to sharing pictures from that trip, but now that I have some free time on my hands, I've decided to go back and share some of the cooler pictures from that trip! Let's start in the awesome and beautiful Crested Butte!
First off, a little geology lesson! According to some of the signs placed along the path near town, Crested Butte* is something called a laccolith. As you can see on the diagrams below on the sign, laccoliths look kind of like pimples that form at some places on the earth's surface. First, layers of sedimentary rock were deposited. Next, igneous rock in the form of magma melted its way through several of the underlying sedimentary layers, as you can see in the second picture. The presence of more matter caused the overlying sedimentary layers to be pushed up, while the underlying layers remained flat.
Over time, the magma cooled and crystallized, forming a granite-like igneous rock, with crystals of feldspar mixed in. By using radiometric dating, geologists have determined that these rocks were formed around 30 million years ago, during the Oligocene Epoch. Over those last 30 MY, erosion and weathering have broken down those layers of sedimentary rock that once covered the laccolith, and exposed the intrusion. The intrusion is what makes up what you would walk on and see when you are on the mountain.
A picture of some of the rocks near the summit of Crested Butte. You can see a little pika peeking out from behind a rock in the center of the picture! Interestingly (at least to me), the last time I talked about either pikas or the Oligocene Epoch was in the same post, the "Top Ten Mammals That Look Like Something They Aren't (Part 1)," a fun post if there ever was one!
Crested Butte (the mountain) has been further isolated from the surrounding mountains due to the influence of glacial forces. Telltale signs of past glaciation are abundant in and around Crested Butte, including the u-shaped valleys, polished bedrock, giant boulders in places where they have no business being, and moraines (defined below), amongst other lines of evidence, all point to past episodes of glaciation. Geologists have dated most of the moraines as about 22.5 to 16.5 thousand years old, during the last Ice Age, and believe that glacial retreat occurred rapidly about 15,000 years ago. Even older glacial deposits date back to around 100,000 years ago!
The scenery was truly spectacular between the town and where we were staying, up near the mountain resort, which in turn was next to the very confusing home rule principality of Mt. Crested Butte. At times, the path turned into a boardwalk, which helped to preserve the wetlands in the area.
Towards town, we passed over the Slate River.
A shot of the bridge over the Slate River in the foreground, with Crested Butte in the background.
As you can imagine, the area was populated by numerous birds, several of which I got pictures of. I am fairly confident that this first one was a female mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides).
We also saw a ton of killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), a fascinating bird, the adults of which will feign injury to draw predators away from fledlings, nests, eggs, and the like. I've included a video which shows one of these animals doing its injury feigning! In case the internal link or whatever it's called isn't working, click HERE to view the video.
Here are the pictures I took of the many killdeer running around!
A few more shots of the amazing scenery!
The next day out the window of the hotel room, we saw a pudgy dog walking by with a neck pillow looking thing around its neck. A little research revealed that this was a KONG Cloud E-Collar, which pretty much serves the same purpose as the cone that you put on dogs and cats after surgeries or the like.
Here is another picture of the dog. This time it is relieving itself.
We ate breakfast at a fun little place along the creek! I had a pancake that was ridiculously enormous.
There were lots of very pretty flowers all over town, including these yellow or wood poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum).
I don't remember which building it was exactly, but one of the buildings in town had the mounted head of what is supposedly the world's largest rack of elkantlers, shot in Crested Butte in 1899 by a man named John Plute. The antlers were certified as the largest in the world in 1961. They definitely did look pretty large!
We'll be looking at more pictures from Crested Butte later! See you then!
*Point of interest and possible confusion: Crested Butte can refer both to the town with a population of around 1,000, or the mountain with an elevation of 12,168 feet. If you hear someone talk about Mt. Crested Butte, then they are most likely referring to the home rule principality by that name. I don't really know what a home rule principality is, and a little bit of research nearly put me into a deep, trance-like state.
