2/28/2023 Silver Canyon Coffee Trail (Boulder Valley Ranch)

We arrived to: blue skies with some clouds, 43º, windy and slightly snowing. It was a dry landscape with sparse vegetation and many canine paw prints in the mud. I could hear prairie dogs alarm calling, with rapid high pitched chirps, as we got around 20 feet from the first hill. This landscape is representative of what the front range plains looked like around 200 years ago. Cattle simulate the effects of bison on the landscape, providing habitat for coyotes and prairie dogs. Prairie dogs are the main reason for the sparse vegetation in this ecosystem. Looking up, we saw many birds interacting with their own species and others: two bald eagles circled above a far hillside, a few robins scavenged in the dirt, a flock of mountain bluebirds flew past us to land on nearby sumac and yuccas, two red-tailed hawks pursued an adult bald eagle, and a red-tailed hawk circling with a juvenile bald eagle. It was a cold day, but interesting bird interactions and desert vegetation.

Publicerat 1 mars 2023 16.08 av clairepowers