Winter on the Big Thompson

Winter Wonderland

First snow on the Big Thompson River was October 26. By now (December 11) the river is frozen over.

Fox All Sleek

The fox disappeared for about a week, showed up this morning, and he's lost his winter coat, as if someone brushed him.

End of Summer

I love fall, but it's sad to see the end of another summer.

Calliope Hummingbird

Most of our hummingbirds are  Broadtail, and in July we have some of the bright orange Rufous, but we are honored to also enjoy brief appearances by the Calliope. They are smaller than the other birds by 1/3.

Their bib as it is called is streaked with red instead of solid like the other birds. We don't know if we have any females because they would have a plain throat and the only way we'd know them is they'd be smaller.

Sunset

The Deer are Heer

Finally today a doe and her twin spotted fawns came through the yard. We thought the mountain lion had done away with all our deer, so we are very pleased to see them.

Sorry the picture is so bad, they went very quickly.

Nice Year for Flowers

The columbines are particularly pretty this year.

More from the Fox

 The fox is looking scroungy, his winter coat is disappearing out from under the longer top hairs.

Looking Down from the Top of the Waterfall

It looks  like flat land, but the person taking the photo is 25 feet above the people below.

Up Rabbit Creek

We've had a couple of good rain storms, so Rabbit Creek, tributary to the Big Thompson River in northern Colorado is still flowing.

The fox burying a dog biscuit. He digs the hole with is paws and then uses his nose to cover it up. He comes back during the night to dig them up, but sometimes the raven beats him to it.

More Fox Pictures

The fox came around twice today.

Every day he loses more of his long winter coat on top. You can see the shorter undercoat at the top of his rear leg. Over the next few weeks he will lose all that longer coat with the gray and white in it and will be mainly red, and won't even look like the same animal.

Hummingbirds

Our hummingbird season is kicking in. We have about 30 birds here at the house plus several flying around at the other cabins.

Bears

We saw a bear the other night, galloping through the yard in the early evening. He was too fast to get a picture, but here is an old photo from a few years back.

That bear saw me taking pictures from inside the house, so went across the bridge for awhile. Later I found out he left this big pile of scat. This was in October, so the bear had been eating late summer foods.

This is scat from the current bear, up near the waterfall. It's this tan color and full of seeds, but I don't know what kind of seeds they are because it's too early for berries to be ripe.

Water Fall on Rabbit Creek

This is the waterfall on Rabbit Creek the day after a big rain.

Kayakers

Yesterday's kayakers, river was 940 cfs. They pulled out at the handicapped fishing area, before the really scary water.

Big Thompson River 900 cfs

The river is 5 1/2 feet deep, 945 cubic feet per second (cfs) in this picture. The natural level is a foot or less.

 We've seen fish jumping so know they are dealing with the high volume. Needless to say, there is no fly fishing going on right now.

Big Dog Biscuits

I've been giving large size dog biscuits to the fox. He carries them up the side of the mountain to his family, but sometimes he eats them right away or buries them in the yard.

Spring Runoff, Highest of the Season

Spring runoff, 650 cfs. Last year it got up to that 2 by 6 on the bottom side of the pump house, so we've got more to come in the next few days.

Getting Ready for Flooding

Just in case there might be flooding with this year's expected high runoff, we put a new batter in the skidsteer. The plan is to scoop up bucket loads of dirt and make a berm to prevent water from getting too near the red cabin. It is the only one that might be threatened, the other two sit up high enough from the river.

The Bucky Family is Back!

Bucky Beaver is back with us, and has brought his family - 2 babies this year, as far as we can tell. Here is one of them following him. 

Chipmunk Eating a Mushroom

We get these golden-colored mushrooms and they make a nice snack for the chipmunks.

My Aunt Eleanor Bein and Ruth Wilson, Berthoud, Colorado 1917.

Spring Runoff - Big Thompson River

We're still waiting for the shoe to drop with regard to the high runoff expected over the next few weeks. Our weather has stayed on the cool side, and today was overcast and didn't reach 60 degrees. This delay in getting warm weather is not good because next thing we know it's June, not a cloud in the sky, and 70 to 80 degrees.

Here is last year's high water around this time, this year is expected to be higher.

Bobcat

In 2006 I had a renter in the Brown Palace who owned a couple of cats who were allowed in and out of the house all day. This attracted a bobcat, which we saw on the woodpile watching them. It left as soon as it saw us watching it. I'm sure it's still around, we just don't have anything of interest for it down here around the houses.

Snow is a Memory

Thursday's snow has mostly disappeared, but this late spring storm was welcome for the moisture. The Big Thompson River was about 200 cfs.

Waiting for the Garden

I've got some short season tomatoes coming in the mail soon, and I'm counting the days until we stop having overnight frost so I can put out my bedding plants and zucchini plants. They are all getting a little leggy languishing in the house here. Today it's 43 degrees out and expected to snow overnight.

Here is my last year 'garden' right after I put out the plants. I always have big hopes for bountiful harvests, but the reality falls short. That's okay, it's fun to plant and hope.

Waiting for Spring

Well, almost the middle of May. We had a big, upslope storm earlier this week. Upslope means the moisture and energy came up the front range of the mountains from the Gulf of Mexico, rather than west over the continental divide. We actually got less rain here in on the edge of the mountains than the cities like Denver and Fort Collins and Loveland that are out on flatter ground.

This colder weather slowed the snow melt so the spring runoff is held in check. It's much better to keep the cool nights as long as we can.

I put out some bread for the fox and the squirrel helped himself.

Warm Days

Every day lately has been warm, but a little breezy at times. There are maybe five hummingbirds now, at least two males. They are enjoying the feeder I put out, and probably bugs hatching out on the river. There have been lots of fishermen lately.

Here's a rainbow caught at my place last weekend.

First Hummingbird of the Year

This morning I saw the first hummingbird outside my window, and hurried to make some juice and get the feeder out there. By this evening, there were two birds, looking very pleased with themselves after their long migration from Mexico.

They are a couple of weeks later this year than last year.

Getting Ready for Spring

Although Colorado's Front Range and foothills did not receive much snow over the winter, the high mountains on the other side of the Continental Divide are showing record snow depths, in some places 130% and more above normal.

When the weather warms up over the next 6 to 8 weeks, this is going to result in record high runoff in the rivers heading eventually to the Gulf of Mexico on the east slope, and the Gulf of Cortez on the west slope.

The Colorado Big Thompson Project was built between 1938 and 1957. Its network of rivers, tunnels, reservoirs and ditches provides supplemental water to 30 cities and towns, and helps irrigate approximately 693,000 acres of northeastern Colorado farmland.

The Colorado-Big Thompson Project is the largest transmountain water diversion project in Colorado.

Built between 1938 and 1957, the C-BT Project provides supplemental water to 30 cities and towns. The water is used to help irrigate approximately 693,000 acres of northeastern Colorado farmland.

Here is a picture of last year's high water in the spring of 2010 about 4 feet deep.

This is the normal level in the fall, the same place in the river, less than 1 foot deep.

More Foxes

Last evening near dusk I saw a different fox out back, to be joined a little later by our regular fox visitor. Maybe it is my regular fox's girlfriend. She's very skittish - takes off when she even glimpses any movement inside the house. It underlines how unusually tame he is.

I'm glad to know he has someone to keep him company. They will probably have babies, and the ground squirrels will have a rough summer of it around here.

Time to go stand on the bridge and look for trout in the river. It snowed on Easter, looked like this:

Pretty soon the river will be high with runoff from the snow, and I won't be able to see the fish.