Today's Sports

Probably the question I am most frequently asked by people who have been feeding birds in the area for many years is, “Where have all the grosbeaks gone?” I wish I could give them a good answer, and I also wish I could bring them back.

First, I try to ascertain that they are referring to the evening grosbeaks because we have other grosbeaks in the area. Usually they describe them as the fairly big birds that are yellow, white and black, and used to come to feeders in droves.

The printed edition of the Christmas Bird Count for 2008, the 109th CBC, just came in lat week’s mail.

As usual it is full of fascinating facts and bits of information. There are 59,813 participants and 661 species, plus 38 forms and 28 introduced exotics seen on the counts. Two of these were new, never seen on CBC before. They were the Jack snipe at Eugene, Ore., and the little bunting at Greater Massett, British Columbia.

FORT COLLINS — Rob Wright has learned to expect the unexpected when it comes to the biggest race of the fall prep season.

Still, it’s tough to imagine that anyone thought the Cougars would have one runner go to the hospital, and another stop mid-race to get sick during the Class 4A state cross-country championships on Nov. 7 at Fossil Ridge High School.

Afterwards, the veteran coach was pragmatic.

“You know, stuff like that just happens,” he said.

The last three weeks have been strange for October. It has been cold. We have had snowstorms about once a week that have kept it cold. Even when the storms have moved on and we have had blue skies and sunshine, the snow on the ground and he wind off the mountains have kept it cold — not at all the warm dry October weather that I consider normal.