Standing Into Danger: June 2020

Friday, June 26, 2020

One Small Rodent with a Huge Impact

I've been stepping out farther

this week into neighboring

Red-tailed Hawk Park.

Many people enjoy

its picnic area, playgrounds,

and sports facilities,

but I go for its boardwalk,

cottonwood stands,

and prairie dog colony.

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA June 20, 2020

Since I don't come from a Colorado ranching family, I love prairie dogs!

Red-tailed Hawk Park's noisy, energetic little critters are black-tailed prairie dogs

(Cynomys ludovicianus), and they have lived along the Front Range

for thousands and thousand of years. At one time their "towns" or colonies

covered as much as seven million acres in the eastern third of Colorado.

They typically live east of the foothills at elevations below 6000 feet (1828 meters).

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

The black-tailed prairie dog is one of three species in Colorado,

and it can be identified by the black tip on its tail and where it lives in the state.

It's not very big, weighing one to three pounds (about a kilogram)

and reaching 14 to 17 inches (36 to 43 centimeters) in length.

The prairie dogs have tan fur tinged with reddish-brown,

short ears, large eyes, and a long, round head. These animals are rodents,

burrowing ground squirrels with sharp claws perfect for digging.

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Black-tailed prairie dogs are highly social animals,

and they live in large colonies of close knit family groups or coteries

consisting of a male, two or three females, and their pups.

They are active during the day and do not hibernate in the winter.

They dig extensive burrows underground

and mound the excavated dirt around the entrances to their burrows.

These mounds help to protect the burrows from flooding

and allow the prairie dogs to see approaching predators.

Typically the prairie dogs clip the plants around these mounds

to spot predators more easily.

Lots of predators hunt black-tailed prairie dogs:

coyotes, hawks, eagles, badgers, rattlesnakes, owls, bobcats, foxes, and ferrets.

Prairie Dog Town

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Entrance to a Prairie Dog Burrow

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Prairie dogs are very vocal. They have a complex system of communication

of yips, chirps, whistles, growls, and barks

that rivals the languages of chimps, dolphins, and orcas (Scientific American).

It's almost impossible to sneak up on a prairie dog.

They are constantly on the alert, and the moment one spots you,

its short, shrill barks ring out repeatedly.

Step a little closer, and the prairie dog dives into its burrow

and others farther away take up the alarm cry.

Their calls identify the type of predator and describe what it looks like.

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Prairie dogs eat grasses, leaves, stems, sedges, roots, forbs, and seeds.

They obtain water from plants such as the prickly pear cactus.

Prickly Pear Cactus

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Black-tailed prairie dogs are a keystone species in the short grass prairie.

They provide food for many predators, and their foraging and burrowing activities

increase the diversity of plants and animals in their area.

They overturn, aerate, and enrich the soil,

help to move rainwater down to the water table,

and encourage the growth of native grasses by clipping vegetation.

Over 150 species of birds and animals depend on

the food and shelter provided by prairie dog ecosystems.

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Black-tailed prairie dogs have decreased drastically in number

because of habitat destruction, poisoning and shooting, and the sylvatic plague.

It's unfortunate that many people don't appreciate the importance

of this animal to the health of the short grass prairie ecosystem.

Black-tailed Prairie Dogs

Red-tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, USA

June 20, 2020

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Aurora, Colorado, USA

Wikimedia

Area Where I Took the Photographs

(by the asterisk in the lower middle)

Google

Southern Aurora and Northern Parker

Google

Adapted from a Sign in the Park

Red-Tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Here's to a Lovely Summer Morning!

I've been struggling with social-distancing this past ten days or so.

Self-isolation seems to stretch into the future with no end in sight.

The weather has been hot and windy,

and yesterday the air was heavy with wildfire smoke.

After days at home wallowing, I forced myself out of the house this morning

and went for a long overdue walk in the open space along Piney Creek.

This is the lush, fecund season with female mule deer dropping their fawns,

cottonwood trees releasing their seeds, and wildflowers springing up everywhere.

Birds are winging back and forth, catching insects and ferrying them to their young.

The earth is alive and filled with promise.

Here's to a lovely summer morning!

Cool Green Beckoning

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Male Goldfinch

Aurora, Colorado

June 7, 2020

Best Guess: Lacy Tansyaster

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18,, 2020

Cottonwood Seed Capsules

Plains Cottonwood Tree

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Bursting Cottonwood Seed Capsules

Releasing Seeds (cotton) on the Wind

Plains Cottonwood Tree

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Bursting Cottonwood Seed Capsules

Caught in the Grass

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Cottonwood Seeds

Scattered in the Grass

Plains Cottonwood Tree

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Middle Pond

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Grackles in a Cottonwood Tree

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Summer Meadows

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Spiderwort

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Mule Doe with Fawn

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Mule Doe with Fawn

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Same Mule Doe Hiding in the Grass

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Upper Pond

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Prickly Poppy

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Prickly Poppy

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

House Finch

Aurora, Colorado

June 7, 2020

Musk Thistle

Along Piney Creek

June 18, 2020

Male Robin

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

Summer Leaves

Plains Cottonwood

Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado

June 18, 2020

I hope you are staying safe and healthy!

All the best to you!

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Aurora, Colorado, USA

Wikimedia

Area Where I Took the Photographs

(by the asterisk in the lower middle)

Google

Southern Aurora and Northern Parker

Google

Adapted from a Sign in the Park

Red-Tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

Friday, June 12, 2020

A Promise Kept

Did you ever have to jostle at work for a project you really wanted?

Guaranteed there was jostling on my third grade team

when it came time to teach our geography unit on Europe.

Usually we team taught this unit, dividing countries among us

and teaching our chosen countries to all of our students

who rotated from teacher to teach in class groups.

That way each teacher prepared lessons for only one or two countries,

while the students got to know all the teachers, and we got to know all the students.

First Glimpse of My Chosen Country

June 11, 2014

My colleagues jostled over who would get to teach France, Italy,

the United Kingdom, or other popular countries.

Me? No jostling. No one ever clamored for Iceland but me.

I wanted Iceland for three big reasons, all contained in this photo:

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park

June 12, 2014

Photo by Terry Barbour

First, Iceland has the oldest surviving Parliament in the world, the Althing.
It dates back to 930 AD, and in 1930, on the Althing's 1000th anniversary,
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park was established on the site
where the Althing met until 1798.

19th-century rendering of the Law Rock in Þingvellir

by W.G. Collingwood

Wikimedia

Second, I loved the delicious irony that Iceland is not continental.
It is oceanic and straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Even if no one else in the world found humor in this (including Terry),
I took great delight in it.

The Trace of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Rift Valley

Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park

Third, I'm a geologist, and the one story I remember from my grade two reader
was about an Icelandic family that went on a picnic
and boiled eggs in a hot spring near a geyser for their lunch.
I fell in love with Iceland, its marvelous landscapes, and its geology.
Right then and there, all of eight years old, I swore that I would go to Iceland.

The Calm Before an Eruption

Geysir, Iceland

June 12, 2014

The Geyser Erupts

Geysir, Iceland

June 12, 2014

So there I am in that photo: in Iceland
standing in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Rift Valley,
with my hand on the North American tectonic plate
where the Althing met for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Am I thrilled or what?

I never had the opportunity to boil eggs in a hot spring,

but I did something even better.

I soaked in the Blue Lagoon with Terry,

a man-made pool heated by geothermal water from the Mid-Atlantic Rift.