It was wonderful hearing the Sandhill Cranes in the low clouds and then finally seeing a flock of about 110 circling over south Boulder from a hill in Louisville yesterday!
Clark’s Nutcrackers are back in Golden Gate Canyon State Park northwest of Golden after a near absence of several years. When I lived next to the park for 25 years, we regularly saw nutcrackers. When there recently, I heard and saw at least two families(?) of them. Clark’s nutcrackers are difficult to ignore if they are present because of their raucous calls.
They are probably back because of the excellent lodgepole pine cone crop in the park— nutcrackers eat pine seeds, favoring the whitebark pine, which is found in high-altitude forests of the northwest.
In the valley below the visitor’s center where Ralston Creek flows, I also saw numerous small flocks of both chickadee and nuthatch species, and heard Townsend’s solitaires singing. Stopping at various trailheads, I noticed an excellent berry crop on native bushes.
Paula Hansley
Louisville