Wildlife & Related

[Hummer]

I've never seen a moose in person and I've lived here all my life. I'll have to go up to Tabernash or Grand Lake this summer and see if I can find one. Never seen a bear in the wild either.

Moose populations have slowly expanded since the 1978 re introductions in northern Colorado. I think I saw my first CO moose in 2012 in RMNP along the Colorado River. But, I think a lot more people will see moose along the
Front Range in the next few years. You have to go looking where the moose live, along mountain waterways wherever there are willow, alder and aspen, etc. If one is lucky, maybe even in Niwot and on the Boulder mall.

[Irving]

I was up in Red Feather Lakes today and the house was right on a lake. The lady was telling me about moose that show up every day. My brother has some videos of them splashing around in Grand Lake, and I'm pretty sure there are some ponds that they frequent up in Tabernash as well. One of these days... Glad to hear the population has increased though.

Are you familiar with the American Prairie Reserve project? https://www.americanprairie.org/

[Irving]

Here is a very long Joe Rogan podcast with Dan Flores. A lot of the podcast discusses coyotes and provides a lot of interesting information (I certainly didn't know it). They also talk a lot about American history regarding the animals that inhabited this land 10-15,000 years ago. Dan Flores is the author of the books "Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History" and "American Serengeti," the latter more directly related to the American Prairie Reserve project mentioned above. One of those things that you might put on while doing something else unless you go on long road trips like I do.

[newracer]

Drive the Laramie River Road or the road to Long Draw Reservoir and you are pretty much guaranteed to see several moose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Irving]

Thanks for the tip. Looks like you're talking about in Bellevue, CO?

[newracer]

Both are up near Cameron Pass up the Poudre Canyon.

[Hummer]

Fresh Moose:





Fresh Bear, a Breaking Bad Bear:

[Hummer]

Moving on from the scatological diaries....



I'm a big proponent of using bird nesting boxes to help bird populations and to bring them closer to home where we can watch them. In many wildland areas, cavity nesting birds lack suitable nest sites. This week I noticed a box up the mountain attached to an old aspen that had fallen to the ground. I built and put that box up almost 30 years ago and it's mostly been used by House Wrens. I brought the box down and re mounted it 14 ft. off the ground on an aspen in a little meadow by the house hoping to attract Violet-green Swallows back to the yard. Yesterday, a Mountain Chickadee explored and probably claimed the box.






As the river is rapidly rising today I decided it's now or never to replace a dipper nesting box in the stream that was lost in the Big Flood of 2013. Dippers nest in gourd-like cavities they build of moss, on ledges that directly hang over water. Sometimes they nest on bridge structures, on boulders, and sometimes on ledges behind waterfalls. It protects them from mammalian predators.

My home dipper nest box is attached to a steel pole anchored to a concrete base. The base is cast with a 1" galvanized pipe built into it for the nest box pole. The river pool next to shore is too deep too wade in, so I used a 16 ft. pump jack scaffold plank to bridge into the stream so I could move a 175 lb. concrete base into the river. I enlisted my longtime friend and neighbor to help with the project. I seeded the box with pieces of streamside mosses which the birds typically use for nest material.

A pair of dippers flew in and serenaded us with their melodious song as we were working.

BTW, we agreed that fishing waders always leak. And the water is always ice cold.




My dipper nesting boxes have been used on streams throughout Colorado for 34 years.


This is the normal annual high water:





This is from the historic flood of September 2013:





A male American Dipper brings steamside moss to build a domed nest inside the nest box.

[Bailey Guns]

That's pretty incredible. Thanks.

[Bailey Guns]

Best picture I could get from a window of the house. 2 mamas and a bunch of little baby ducklets.