Blue Goose ~ Day 44

July 14, 2014 ~ Big Bend Campground, CO to Scottsbluff, NE

The campground was serene and warmed up once the sun got over the mountains. I walked by the meadow, listening to buzzing hummingbirds and Chipping Sparrows and watching Yellow-rumped Warblers before leaving in search of coffee, which found that 20 miles down the road but immediately got distracted by the six hummingbird feeders around the store. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of hummers constantly visiting the feeders. I took at least 200 photos and even after discarding, I still have 45 of them (most of which will eventually be deselected).

Female Broad-tailed Hummingbirds - along US 14 - CO

Male Broad-tailed Hummingbird - along US 14 - CO

Getting neighborly with Broad-tailed Hummingbirds for an hour in the morning sunshine in the Rockies is a perfect way to start a day. The woman in the store said they get two species...one was the Rufous which just starting coming and were often "nasty little birds" and another species she had trouble remembering but knew it had a red throat. As far as I could tell, these were all Broad-tailed. This was such an unexpected pleasure...more than compensating for the marginal coffee.

I wasn't quite sure I was through the mountains until I popped out suddenly where I turned north into Wyoming again. But before that,  I drove in the Cache la Poudre River canyon past more lovely campgrounds, including one named Dutch George, occasionally watching whitewater rafters, on a winding, winding road which meant moving slowly, and once waiting for work crews working on a slump repair which means the road basically slumps into the river or down a mountainside. Of course there were many warnings about "Rocks" which I guess means they could be in the road or come down on one's vehicle. There were also areas of a previous burn with warnings of possible landslides and flash flooding, and that one should "Climb to Safety." Handsome Black-billed Magpies flew about and it was comfortably warm but not hot. One-third of the land in the US is federal land (our land) and there were several National Forests along here, interspersed with modest private cabins and home. There were also signs indicating "No Snowplowing betweeen 7 pm and 5 am. "

The road north from Colorado into Wyoming went through wide open land, the transition zone from prairie to mountains, with beautiful blush-rosy-brown (lipstick colors) rock formations. The sky was soft blue; the grasses a delicate green; dark mountains to my left, some with snow on the top.

Not far from Laramie is Hutton Lake NWR. I had to drive 10 miles on a wide gravel road toward distant mountains to get there, and the road was better than the refuge which had a few drying lakes and bugs. Not that all refuges have to be perfectly suited for human visitation....I am continually grateful for whatever powers and people create and implement these sanctuaries.

WWW.FWS.GOV

Several roads traversing the Refuge provide access to all five lakes. Spring waterfowl flights can be spectacular with large concentrations of migrating waterfowl, especially redhead and canvasback ducks. Shorebirds and raptors also frequent the Refuge. Several prairie dog towns along the roads offer a close-up view of white-tailed prairie dogs.

The White-tailed Prairie Dogs seemed incredibly dimwitted as they burrow in the middle of the road and would stand tall by their burrows waiting for cars to drive over them. Several times I worried that I smashed one, but perhaps they dive down at the last minute as I never felt bumps or heard death squeals. The scenery was just awesome, and I parked along the road for an hour watching birds on fences, most notably a McCown's Longspur which would fly up and lark about with translucent white tail spread wide and then return again and again to a fence line. The field guides and Pete Dunne don't give this bird enough beauty credit. Its shoulders are chestnut; it has a rounded black bib, a black band on the tip of its tail and white and black facial markings and the delightful way the sun shines through the tail as it flutters about in the sky. I got a few photos after fussing and experimenting with my camera most of the hour and was about to leave when a local sheriff's deputy pulled in behind me to check things out. I assured her I was fine and showed her the picture of the longspur in one of my field guides. She just wanted to make sure I didn't have car trouble and was OK.

On impulse, I got my hair cut in Laramie and poked around a Murdoch's (western chain out west) for T-shirts or other gift possibilities but found nothing...A few cute and very expensive T-shirts but in larger sizes. The jewelry was locked up so not in my price range. I guess this is where the rodeo people shop, and the ranchers and farmers.

I continued on I84 through Cheyenne, and at Kimball, NE, turned north to Scottsbluff where I spent the night and had decent food at The Wonderful House, a popular Chinese restaurant. I had a beef and broccoli dish because I am learning to order food appropriate to the location.