Outdoors

When we moved here in 1965, crows were officially named the “common crow.” But, they were definitely not common in Evergreen, except in winter. Summer crows in the mountains were few and far between.

These lazy, warm summer days are what living in Evergreen is all about. But for some of God’s critters, they are a harbinger of a winter to come. Each morning our golden-mantled ground squirrel saunters out, blinks his eyes and ambles over to the birdfeeder for a hearty breakfast and to enjoy the warm sunshine. He frolics through his old haunts, runways and hideouts, then settles down at the feeder, obviously “in residence” for the summer. His appetite will increase soon as he stuffs himself in preparation for winter.

People often ask me how I happen to see so many more birds and animals than they do.

They often say that they at least drive into downtown Evergreen every day, sometimes more than that, and they don’t see half as many things as I do.

I usually reply to this that birders are made by learning the art of observation. I am not as good an observer as my late husband Bill was. He began birding the minute he woke up. Many days he had the first bird on his daily list before he got out of bed by looking out the bedroom window.

Summer is in full swing with August weather starting in July.

As the weathermen have been saying, the monsoon winds are bringing warm and wet air up from the Gulf Coast, which is bringing us rain when it bumps into our cool mountains. This usually occurs in August, but this year two near tropical storms brought some similar weather in July, so we have had unusually hot and humid weather, very unlike the hot dry weather we are used to.