Into the Mountains

I've made my way out of the grasslands and into higher elevation! I had a beautiful transect this morning just outside of Golden (home of Coors) on Lookout Mountain. The name made me feel like there should be some "See Ruby Falls" signs around, but I didn't see any. What I did see was some beautiful views and a whole new community of birds. And a lot of woody plants I couldn't identify, although poring over my field guide helped. Also, the steep winding road heading up the mountain seems to be a mecca for cyclists and there was even a paraglider taking off and circling his way over the city. Pretty sweet for a morning at the office!

Grasslands II

Craig came to visit me in the grasslands since he got the long weekend off work. It was so nice to have some company! We got to explore a little of Carrizo Canyon, close to the Colorado/New Mexico border and spent a little time in the town of Trinidad.

a reminder why white legs in shorts with hiking boots is never a good idea...

Comanche National Grassland

I'm doing bird surveys in Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado and it's a different world down here! I've seen a lot of amazing birds, including my first rufous-crowned sparrow and Chihuahuan raven. Unfortunately those guys are always moving and I don't have camera skills like Craig, so enjoy these photos of other things that don't move as fast.




This area was converted from native grasses and plants to farmland in the early 1900's and became part of the Dust Bowl in the 1930's. The wind has been blowing almost non-stop since I've been here, so it's not hard to imagine how exposed topsoil could just get blown away. They had some dust-storms so large that it turned day into night and people feared the end of the world had come.
In addition to this interesting recent history, the grasslands also has sites with petroglyphs 300-800 years old and the longest dinosaur tracks in the US. I'm hoping to see these before I leave!

This tarantula was almost the size of my fist! Did you know there are more than 50 species of tarantula in the US?

I only wish I'd gotten my A.C. repaired before this trip...(it was actually only 95 degrees outside, but hey, I was sitting in the car and it was H-O-T!)

Well, I've got another early start tomorrow and it's way past my bedtime!

Haiku for a Wyoming Summer

My fingers are ice.
Stoic wind-ravaged plains,
snow rests in shade.


Only one week away from assisting Craig photograph a wedding in Mexico, so I thought I'd better get prepared. Item 1 on my list: buying a new bathing suit (forget learning the minutiae of lighting and radio-triggered flash, I have priorities). This will be my first new bathing suit since going to visit Josh at his sister's place in Destin, FL. That's been....4 years ago?

The sagging elastic on my suit last year let me know it was screaming to be retired (aren't we all?), but I didn't do very much swimming so it wasn't a priority. This year I'm hoping to get a little more time in environments with water, with the trip to Mexico hopefully just being the first such example.

Turns out I'll be working until the day before the flight, so I need to buy the suit here in northern Wyoming. Luckily for me, we are working based out of Sheridan (population 16,000) a good-sized town by Wyoming standards with a thriving old downtown area that still has an old-fashioned JC Penney's in a two-story building on Main Street. I browsed the shelves, but no sign of bathing suits. Finally I asked - they don't carry bathing suits, you have to special order them! Went to 2 other stores in town and no suits were had. Can you believe that I am living in a place that has such a short/cold summer that bathing suits aren't carried in major department stores?!

Sigh...hope the elastic on ol' faithful holds up for one last trip. Now please excuse me while I go put my summer parka on....

Advertising Fail

In honor of one of my favorite sites, FAILblog, I'd like to share with you a marketing failure I spotted in the checkout line yesterday:

I hope you can see the fine texture of the mask. You really want to make sure you smear that on before you apply the grape leaves and fried eggs to your eyes, of course.

The Wrath of Facebook

The mighty fist of Facebook is coming down hard.
In my paranoia of giving personal info to giant companies, I usually lie about addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth on things like Safeway grocery store card applications. That's right, my secret is out. In order to save $.15 on apples, I will falsify information. Why do they want it anyway? And those new promotions where they send you coupons or give you points toward gas are a fairly new occurrence, whitewashing whatever nefarious gains they are receiving from selling our information to...who?? Not to mention that our information is available from way too many sources (anybody ever googled someone and seen 123people.com - creepy!), we've all heard the horror stories of identity theft.
So when I first signed up for a Facebook account and they asked for my date of birth, naturally, I made one up. Then I traveled to Wyoming and tried to sign in to my account. This triggered a security measure I'd never encountered before, I had to enter my name and password, then type in the words I saw in those crazy swirly words, and THEN they asked for my date of birth...
and you see, dear reader, the problem with a fake birthday is that it's even harder to remember than a real one, and apparently lying about your date of birth to Facebook is a violation of their terms of agreement.
And so my Facebook page has been suspended.
Oh the humanity.... what is happening to Deanne in lab? Has Amy posted any photos of Ron dressed as the Easter bunny, distributing candy eggs to the kids? Who has reached 1 trillion points in FarmVille or Aquariumworld or Ninja Wars? Arghhhhh!!!!! It's killing me!
And worst of all, Craig has finally joined Facebook, forming both a personal page and a Craig Okraska Photography page. His friend request is languishing somewhere in the netherworld of the interweb and I am powerless to accept it.
You will all only be hearing from me by...sniff, sniff... phone or email from now on, unless Facebook shines it's forgiveness upon me.

Great Backyard Bird Count

It's almost time for the Great Backyard Bird Count again! On any day during February 12-15th you can make a difference and have fun by spending as little as 15 minutes in your own backyard counting birds!