Yesterday's hero (famous writer, movie star, politician) is the villain of today. There is a lot of that going around — even with trees. Take kudzu. That was like the Fatty Arbuckle of… Read More

• Watch the video trailer for a class on animal trailing and tracking taught by Casey McFarland,  "but also, by extension, appreciating our connection to the natural world and how… Read More

When I started camera-trapping for omivores like bears or foxes, I tried baiting them with dry cat or dog food. I figured it would not hurt anyone who ate a few kibbles. Camera-trapper Chris… Read More

Photo from 1918 of the Mahon Ranch, west of Buena Vista.Pictured are Martha Mahon, her daughter Cassie and Cassie’s husband George Fields with crates of head lettuce. Courtesy of Bue… Read More

Colorado is looking to bring back the wolverine, thus successfully "retconning" that Cold War movie hit Red Dawn. (Supposedly set in Colorado, it was actually filmed in and around Las Veg… Read More

Pygmy Owl, abducted by aliens and examined.A game warden called from up in the county seat. Someone had brought him a Northern Pygmy-Owl (correct ID on his part) that was "in danger" on a hi… Read More

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has now published a GPS map for Colorado wolves.Understand that while every wolf wears a GPS collar, including the ones that wandered in to North Park and were da… Read More

In early January 2024 Mario Angeles video'd these two lynx near Silverton, Colorado. That is a special moment, all right. Between native populations and (mainly) reintroduction, Colorao's ly… Read More

Gov. Jared Polis was on hand Dec, 18, 20203 to release Oregon wolves in Colorado, but some Coloradans deeply involved with the project never were invited.Some officials and Western Slope res… Read More

Click to enlarge (Source: Bloomberg)Stefan Soloviev is only the 26th largest landowner in America, so he has a way to go to catch up with John Malone or Ted Turner.Stefan Soloviev (Business… Read More

A wolf who walked in from Wyoming caught on a scout camerain North Park in March 2023 (Don Gittleson via AP).Dad was still alive when the debate on reintroducing wolves to Colorado began, so… Read More

No one is ever on the sidewalks in Clayton, New Mexico. Its population has trended down since 1960, and if you want to visit a store or other business, you can generally park right in front… Read More

Jeep's "Borrow Ditch Advantage" option is available only from Great Plains dealerships, so it is not well-known to the automotive press Read More

Long ago in the Ice Age, a rough fluffy Dog lay down on the Hunter's reindeer-skin pack.When the Hunter returned, he spoke: "Hey, you stinking animal! My quiver is under there! If you broke… Read More

If you take your finger and place it on a map marking the geographical center of the nation, somewhere above Kansas and below South Dakota, it won’t simply be resting on a blank spot… Read More

Hiker looks a rain gauge in an aspen grove.This year's Colorado aspen leaf-peeping season was a fine one, and the reason is last winter's snowpack, reports the Colorado Sun.With enough water… Read More

Gusse and Inglis canoeing in Canada (NY Post).I have been reading the sad story of Jenny Gusse and Doug Inglis, experienced Canadian canoists and backcountry travelers, killed September 29th… Read More

Many people call this late-summer wildlflower "blazing star," but I always call it by the bontanical genus name, Liatris. It is the only wildflower that I call by its Latin name, and the rea… Read More

Is Marco the dog following a visual trail, with the additional visual cues of rocks lined up on the side, or is he following "a rippling, three-dimensional tapestry of light, shapes, and s… Read More

Just a lion walking past a trail camera two years ago.•  The culinary side of mountain lions (cougars) is not covered in this Colorado Parks and Wildlife video series, but you get… Read More

The 1892 Crystal "Mill" was actually a powerhouse. (Library of Congress) If you live in Colorado, you know this image. As the man quoted says, it's on the wall of every dentist's office… Read More

I was taking Marco to a favorite pond yesterday when I saw this large beetle marching down the dirt road we were on. Overall length was about 2 in./5 cm.I thought of a pine sawyer, but there… Read More

I was going to say "kinky" because p. 236 in my Sibley guide is Amazon parrots, but then I realized that I was using the "Western North America" version Read More

Fendi Despres (right) and a prairie-restoration volunteers.  (Photo: Fendi Despres via 5280).5280 Magazine describes how the 1,100-acre Plains Conservation Center (owned by the city of… Read More

Click to embiggen.This graphic displays moisture changes in Colorado over the last 90 days. As you can see, the Eastern Slope and High Plains have been wet. Nearly 11 inches (28 cm) have fal… Read More

Last of the low penstemon.A now-gone rancher friend used to say, "All signs fail in times of drought." Maybe they fail in times of heavy rains as well.Spring started dry. I was out on a coup… Read More

Photo: Colorado Sun "Pastoral cultures are always violent," I read once in an anthropology book. You know the scenario: two herds are convering on a watering hole from different di… Read More

The National Weather Service office in Pueblo posted these radar images on Facebook today.See the oval on the left? That is not rain, it's birds.No matter what we do. No matter who is runnin… Read More

When I was young and the internet still only dial-up, I had an idea for a Future Farmers of America chapter fundraiser.A chapter in, say, Wray, Colorado, could poll its members' parents and… Read More

In 2008, I described two different narratives about the area south of Florence, Colorado, in the pre-Civil War era of trappers and traders and would-be ranchers. I called it "History Wa… Read More

Mountain chickadeee (Poecile gambeli). Cornell UniversityA recent Audobon Society article spoke to possible hybridization between mountain chickadees and black-capped chickadees (more common… Read More

I'm working through a backlog of news-related potential blog posts. Here's a short video about state wildlife biologists working with non-game species — but still important native fish… Read More

These mule deer were not killed because someone was hungry, but for money. (Colorado Parks & Wildlife)I was told once that a certain state game warden in my area used to wink at poaching… Read More

The last commercial structure on Main Street, Hartman, Colorado.Some years back my friend Galen and I went to a "hunters' breakfast" in Hartman, a fundraiser for a local service club or some… Read More

Fred Borsch holds Tootsie during Deadwood's 1950 "Days of '76" Parade (South Dakota Public Broadcasting). My boyhood in the Black Hills slightly overlapped the life of Tootsie, a famous… Read More

I stopped at the Big R store in Pueblo last week — my first visit in some time — and wow, that chicken thing.Big R seems to cater mainly to hobby ranchers and rural homeowners. (… Read More

This mountain lion was captured and tagged in Boulder in October 2021.Relocated to the mountains, it was killed in December 2022 after attacking dogs.(Photo: Boulder Police Dept, via the Col… Read More

A lion who did not understand the concept of "focal length" on an inexpensive trail cam.The Vail Daily reminds ski-country residents and visitors that mountain lions can be just about anywhe… Read More

Buffalo at the Navajo-owe Wolf Springs Ranch. (Photo: Ranch Marketing Assn.)Look at the banner photo on this blog, and you will see at lower right a bull buffalo (bison, if you prefer).That… Read More

Sample OnX map.An article on "corner-cutting," public access, and whether landowners own airpace over property corners makes it to the New York Times.I am giving you a link to an archived co… Read More

1987 was the worst year of my life. A dream job of working on an outdoor magazine was falling apart (with the publication itself), leaving M. and me stuck in a Colorado town that she barely… Read More

When Henryk Sienkiewicz crossed the Great Plains on his way to California and adventure in 1876, I assume his train took the "Golden Spike" route, crossing Nebraska and southern Wyoming, the… Read More

St. Mary's Holy Dormition Orthodox Church, situated on the prairie east of Colorado Springs.When I set out on the annual trip to North Dakota in October, I was under the spell of a 19th-cent… Read More

Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) on the road in The Straight Story. When you see someone grocery shopping on a riding mower, it usually means that he has had too many DUIs and lost his li… Read More

The wildlife rehabilitation center where I help out sometimes as a taxi driver for orphaned critters has had a quiet year so far — a few mule deer fawns but no bears, no cats, no beave… Read More

Danger! These are unlicensed matches!The second chilly day row, and again I built a fire in the wood-burner, striking a match on the flagstones where it sits and touch the flame to a little… Read More

Some of these designs work and others do notHere in the southern Rockies, our hummingbirds have almost gone. I saw one female broad-tailed hummingbird yesterday (Sept. 30th). Evidently… Read More

Ahead, the sawyer searches for the lost trail while others clear saplings and logs.I spent Saturday with a volunteer trail crew rebuilding a trail in the Wet Mountains, a process that we beg… Read More

The Saturday farmers market in Taos, New Mexico, is a rarity: sellers of food outnumber the sellers of homemade soap, crocheted potholders, and other non-edible items. Especially now, when l… Read More

Fly-fishing in Colorado (Colorado Parks & Wildife photo)I am writing this from northern New Mexico, where there are some trout streams — and the usual controveries over landowners… Read More

The last bolete of August? Where is the Jägermeister to summon the hunting horns to blow the "last call"?We are having what southern Colorado calls "State Fair weather," in other words… Read More

Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service The elk triggered a scout camera at Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. But someone else was watching. Can you see the mountain lion?&nb&hell…Read More

Annual Colorado state parks pass on a windshield.These passes cannot be switched between vehicles.  The Denver Post had the story last June, but I don't think that it has sunk in yet:Co… Read More

Next time, please face the cameraBeside the photo from the 18th, I had been seeing other signs of a hungy bear in the neighborhood: another dumped garbage can (not photographed) and a couple… Read More

Yesterday at the grocery store in Pueblo, the conversation was about tarantulas — one of the employees explaining how he tries to usher the huge spiders out of the house before his wif… Read More

Put your garbage out the night before pickup, and a bear will find it.Some years back, a Colorado Division of Wildlife (as it was then called) public relations job opened up in Montrose, and… Read More

 We remain "abnormally dry," despite all the rain. Dry soils, low reservoirs Read More

A quick shot from the Junkins Burn of 2016 in Colorado's Wet Mountains  — looking roughly west, so the haze is a cold front (relatively speaking "cold") rolling in from the north… Read More

Hinsdale Co. Courthouse, Lake City, Colo. (Hinsale County)This particular set of numbers is based on permanent population density, so a couple of tourist-heavy counties such as Pitkin County… Read More

You maybe did not notice, but last April, Colorado Parks & Wildlife shut down its CPW Fishing app.  It's still the Apple app store (Android too, I assume), but a CPW spokesman said… Read More

Spurred by Facebook reports of increasing mushroom finds, M. and I went for a walk last Wednesday. Although the higher Wet Mountains were not as dry as we feared, we found no fungi but saw l… Read More

Right now I call this good news, getting upgraded to "abnormally dry." And there was more good rain the evening of the 6th as well Read More

Part 1: "What Monkey?"Part 2: "The First Hike"Part 3: "Flesh and Blood"Part 4: "Paranormal Bigfoot"Part 5: "Tree Structures"Saw a sticker like thison a car in Pueblo last weekAll morning on… Read More

This is not a "tree structure" but a stack of saplings cut by a trail crew in the San Isabel NF. But it could pass for one if you ignore the saw cuts on the butt ends.Part 1: "What Monkey?"P… Read More

Part 1: What Monkey?Part 2: The First HikePart 3: Flesh and BloodA claimed 1989 Bigfoot sighting in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, led to the placing of this humorous Bigfoot Crossing sign… Read More

Part 1: "What Monkey?" Part 2: "The First Hike Anthropologist Grover Krantz poses with his skulls. Image credit: Alchetron, CC BY-SAGrover Krantz (1931–2002) was a resp… Read More

Part 1 herePark County Road 56 — was I ever here before?After three hours behind the wheel (two of them spent crossing Park County, which is large), I was on a county road in the Pike… Read More

It was a 2.5-hour drive just to get somewhere near Monkey Creek. Here we are entering South Park on Colorado 9 – too late for the auction.(Click photos to enlarge.) Goin' up to Mo… Read More

• The subtitle of Southwestern writer Craig Child's book The Secret Knowledge of Water is "There are Two Ways to Die in the Desert: Thirst and Drowning."For this Mesa County mountain bi… Read More

UC assistant professor of geology Joshua Miller examines a fossilized mastodon at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Miller found tooth marks on the skeleton's scapula suggesting a predator suc… Read More

Dear We Ship Precip Customer: Your order no. 15042022-16IN, which had been on back order, has now shipped and should have arrived or be arriving shortly. We deeply regret the delay, but… Read More

Here is District Wildlife Manager Travis Sauder talking about wildfire and wildlife at the site of the High Park Fire in Teller County (west of Colorado Springs and closer to Cripple Creek)… Read More

A couple of weeks ago I was unloading Marco at "the pond" when I met a guy preparing to leave, along with his friendly chocolate Lab. Noting Marco's breed, he recited — like I had neve… Read More

Migrating tarantua in southern Colorado (12News Denver).For polar bear tourism, Churchill, Manitoba, is the spot. For grizzly bears, probably Yellowstone. For sandhill cranes, try western Ne… Read More

Some National Weather service video from Saturday afternoon, April 30, 2022. As three fires burn west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, a dust storm rolls south from Baca County, Colorado, the heart… Read More

M. and I were poking around in the Wet Mountains two days ago, at the site of a now-vanished picnic ground that I think dated from the 1920s creation of campgrounds and picnic grounds under… Read More

Fires everywhere in southern Colorado this week. I myself was "toned out" of bed at 2:27 a.m. yesterday, soon to be loaded into a brush truck (Type 6 engine) with three other volunteers, hea… Read More

Colorado used to be south of the equator — about 300 million years ago. Things were a little different then: "a low-lying area, periodically inundated by the ocean." Since I live… Read More

 • A new drought map. January-March 2022 precipitation hit some record lows. I am relieved to be living in one of the green areas on the map. • If you grow up in a city g… Read More

It is an interactive map of all lands managed by the State Land Board.From a news release:Our public map provides data about our 2.8 million acres of surface trust land and our four million… Read More

When life give you lemons, squeeze the juice onto your trout.Caught in a traffic jam last month on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, angler Dylan Hayes fished — and put the episode on… Read More

OK, gear-heads, this is for you.I never made a "Things that Annoy Me" category for this blog, but if I did, it would include coats and jackets with double zipper sliders.Double zipper on a P… Read More

Another patient in the Raptor Center "ICU."The injured red-tailed hawk, the game warden said, was somewhere in the riparian cottonwood grove near where the power line crosses the little grav… Read More

Wolverine in Glacier Nat. Park (NPS)Fictional southern Colorado high schools may no longer be accused of using an almost non-existent animal (in this state) as their mascot.The last confirme… Read More

 • Here is a short video about lynx in Colorado.**• Is your toothache really Lyme disease?• The history of outdoor life in the Nordics is long and really incorporated wi… Read More

Clickbait? That is nothing new. Watch Kirk Douglas as obnoxious, erratic, but talented reporter Chuck Tatum in the 1951 noir film Ace in the Hole (directed and co-written by Billy Wilder) an… Read More

Steve Rinella (Photo: Natalie Ivis)People toss the word "brand" around a lot, but I did not know how big a "brand" Steve Rinella has become.Rinella is arguably the country’s most famou… Read More

"Look 1," from Private Policy (Vogue magazine)  The article on Vogue Runway's website begins,Every New Yorker spends a not insubstantial amount of time trying to get away from the city… Read More

 I am at my desk reading the morning news. There is a swishing sound, but it does not really register on me.Then I go out into the hallway to see this white stripe going down its l… Read More

(Photo from Utah state government)An article in the Sopris Sun (Pitkin County) quotes a man who moved there from Alaska a few years back: “After I relocated to the Roaring Fork Va… Read More

"Conquer Through Cuteness."That is the Puppy Way, Marco knows.Already published Part 1: The Retriever Who Did Not RetrievePart 2: A Professional Golden RetrieverPart 3: A Bulldozer of a Do… Read More

Already published Part 1: The Retriever Who Did Not RetrievePart 2: A Professional Golden RetrieverPart 3: A Bulldozer of a Dog Part 4: Hardscrabble Jack Part 5: Half a Lab, Totall… Read More

Already published Part 1: The Retriever Who Did Not RetrievePart 2: A Professional Golden RetrieverPart 3: A Bulldozer of a Dog Part 4: Hardscrabble Jack With Shelby and Jack on a sprin… Read More

Already published Part 1: The Retriever Who Did Not RetrievePart 2: A Professional Golden RetrieverPart 3: A Bulldozer of a DogJack swimming in the  creek on a hot summer day.Let's try… Read More

Perk modeling an improvised muzzle, from an article I wrote for Gun Dog magazine on field first aid.Part 1 The Retriever Who Did Not RetrievePart 2 A Professional Golden RetrieverJust a few… Read More

Read Part 1 here. Horn Peak from across the Wet Mountain Valley  (Wikimedia Commons).It was the early 1980s, I had my grandfather's Winchester Model 12 shotgun,  and my friend Gale… Read More

A boy with a shotgun that shot only corks, and a Labrador retriever who did not retrieve.The yellow Lab's name was Misty. Dad got her cheap. She had been bred several times. He thought she m… Read More

The main lodge at Cloud Camp (Broadmoor Hotel photo)Known its golf courses (plural), tennis club, riding stable, and other amenities, the sprawling Broadmoor Hotel on the edge of Colorado Sp… Read More

Santa Claus dropped off a new Husqvarna 120i battery-powered saw this year.A 1980s Husqvarna chainsaw, rear, with a 2021 batttery-powered saw of similar size.Santa Claus dropped off a new Hu… Read More

In a recent post about what feels like an overall decline at Cabela's outdoor stores, I mentioned that they were showing more varieties of camouflage clothing than I had ever seen – al… Read More