Rainfall - Last chance

[Deborah Carstensen]

Channel 9 news reported that Last Chance received 6.6 inches of rain over the last couple of days. I'd be curious to know the effect on the birding area from that.
Also, does anyone know how much rain Karval has received in the last couple of days? It looks like they've been getting a good amount, but I don't know if they actually have received much moisture.
Deb Carstensen, Littleton Arapahoe County


Sent from my iPhone

[Judi Ogle]

Hi Deb, We just drove through eastern Colorado.  Everything is fairly green because of recent rain.  Even down into the Lamar/Two Buttes area everything has greened up and there is water in the creeks.  While we were in the Two Buttes area (Rocky 7K Ranch) they received another 7/10 or rain.  So I am figuring fall migration may be fairly good down there.

Judi Ogle
Burns, WY

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

Hi Deb et al,
I came through Last Chance on July 30th.  This is prior to the monster rains you mention but the place had obviously received some moisture this summer.  Sprouting from the bases of the charred Siberian Elms and Plains Cottonwoods is impressive, a few to several feet tall, and largely obscured the normal view of the "pond" from its northeastern shore.  Other understory grasses, forbs, and woody shrubs are growing well, including a few small patches of snow-on-the-mountain (its blooms being highly attractive to many insects), what looked like crested wheatgrass (probably part of the mix that was planted), golden currant, etc.  I took a lap around the place and didn't see a whole lot in the way of summer resident birds (seemed subdued from recent years past) but a couple Brown Thrashers indicate there is still "quality" thicket habitat on the south side of the pond in that draw that goes out to the highway.
 
I noticed some of the trees and shrubs planted this year and nurtured with a drip system did not make it, which is to be expected with any planting project in a largely hostile environment like the plains of CO.  These individual drip stations could be replanted this fall if the labor, time, and plant material was available.  But most of planted stock was surviving, some thriving.  Hopefully the profusion of growth in the understory was able to moderate some of the erosion 6 inches of rain could inflict on just about any site.  My expectation would be if the rains were accompanied by wind, some of the bigger black trunks could have blown down.  What to do with those would be up the evaluation of the locals.  If their falling isn't a hazard issue or involve the rest area fence, I'd be inclined to leave them as structure for lower plants to incorporate into habitat for a skulking Kentucky or Swainson's Warbler (well, at least Lincoln's Sparrows). 

I would imagine the migrants will like Last Chance this fall, just like they always do.  It's not just a water hole.  It's wounded and not what it was.  It's something in between, but hopefully getting better.  Think U.S. economy.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins

> Subject: [cobirds] Rainfall - Last chance
> From: fiddl...@aol.com
> Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2013 23:41:12 -0600
> To: cob...@googlegroups.com

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+u...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to cob...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/F1A4FF60-573F-4379-956F-D94FAF0A9FA8%40aol.com.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>
>

[Bryan Guarente]

Deb and others,

There are two available datasets to look at for precipitation totals (both are national datasets if you need to check other places).  The National Weather Service (NWS) has a "Observed Precipitation" website: http://water.weather.gov/precip/ and there is a community-driven, citizen science website where precipitation is recorded as well: http://www.cocorahs.org/state.aspx?state=co

On each of those sites you can track back multiple days to see the amount of precipitation.  

The NWS page is listed by Weather Forecast Office (Last Chance is in the Denver/Boulder, CO forecast office).  If you want daily amounts, it is best to click on the "Archive (Daily)" button below the map to track backwards.  Beware of the legend on each image.  It changes dramatically depending on the amounts that have fallen.

CAVEAT: The NWS page uses radar data and observation stations to quality control their data.  There are not observation stations everywhere on this map, so some of the data are estimates only from radar observations.  There is a grain of salt in that data if you get my point.

The Cocorahs website is listed by county, so just click into Washington county for an idea of the amounts, then track back days and do some math.

Hope that helps you get some data for the area.  

 

Bryan Guarente
Instructional Designer
The COMET Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO

---

From: DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleat...@msn.com>
To: "fiddl...@aol.com" <fiddl...@aol.com>; COBIRDS <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 5, 2013 8:58 AM
Subject: RE: [cobirds] Rainfall - Last chance

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/SNT139-W642C4D3736B2B1411C7A8CC15C0%40phx.gbl.

[Deborah Carstensen]

Thanks for everyone's response to my email. A lot of interesting information out there, it'll be great to see what it looks like when someone gets there in the next few days. Deb Carstensen 

Littleton

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1375715916.82942.YahooMailNeo%40web140201.mail.bf1.yahoo.com.