Saturday, August 2, 2014

Hail, Frost, Weasels and a Ptarmagin

I went out for a very nice walk down to the bottom of Montezuma Bowl this morning. We have had several seriously rainy days lately. Today is a picture perfect, almost cloudless, bluebird Colorado day. It does not get better. Yesterday afternoon we had some white, hail-like stuff above 11,000 feet. When the storm cleared out after midnight, the temp dropped significantly and we had a little frost.

Most hikes around here are really good for viewing wildlife. Today was no exception. The marmots and pikas are thick out there and starting to fatten up. I saw some deer wandering around MGD. I even walked by a pair of weasels. They are hard to catch with a camera, but I did get an image of one them literally "turning tail" on my presence. I also spied a ptarmagin. These birds are so still and so well camouflaged that you can almost step on them.