Thursday April 20th: Deadman's Gulch, Lyons CO

Today the weather was 45 degrees, sunny, and breezy. The trail was through a mostly Ponderosa-dominated forest but we did notice some Douglas Firs. We noticed many flowers including spring beauty, Oregon grapes, violets, golden flags, and pasque flowers. Most were yellow (og, v, gf). We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of being an early flower that is the same colors as other early blooming flowers. There was a hummingbird that kept whizzing by but I never got a chance to see it and did not hear it on the descent. I caught a look at a flying insect I thought was a bee but turned out to be a bee fly which is a fly that hoovers! Our presentations were on Rocky Mountain uplift, fire in front-range ecosystems, and generalists vs. specialists.

Publicerat 20 april 2023 23.15 av alexgibbons0508