Flower for the Day 9-11-12 Columbine - Not your usual color

Here are some mammoth yellow columbines.

  

Bonus 9-10-12 Mystery Bird

This mystery bird was in a dead tree by the public beach on the 

north shore of Lake Estes. A local birder told us that Baldy the 

eagle usually was perched in this tree.

 

Addendum: After multiple suggestions it has been determined that the bird
is an immature (juvenile) double crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).
It might have been easier if it had been in the arctic or on Sanibel Island.

Flower for the Day 9-10-12 Monarda

The flowers in Estes Park are spectacular. They are larger and more colorful than those in the heartland. These monarda (bee balm) were growing just off north Moraine Street by the Fall River downtown.

Bonus 9-7-12 Snow Shoe Rabbit

Snow shoe rabbit (Lepus americanus)  On a hike with Ken Oldham to Bierstadt Lake

(below) we came upon this snow shoe rabbit. Its name comes from the large 

size of its hind feet and the marks left by its tail. It grows fur on the soles of its feet for 

snow and ice protection. It is white in the winter and rusty brown in the summer. It has white feet and 

flanks and grows black tufts of fur on the edge of its ears. It does not hibernate. It can

have up to four litters per year which makes it sound like it can reproduce like a rabbit. 

Lake Bierstadt  Rocky Mountain National Park  8-8-12

Flower for the Day 9-7-12 Bachelor Buttons

Bachelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus) Also Common cornflower,blue bottle, and cyani flower. Bachelor buttons were chosen by Jan to be the boutenniere flowers for me and the groomsmen at our wedding 51 years ago.These bachelors buttons were growing behind the Estes Park Library parking lot in a striking display.

Flower for the Day 9-6-12 The Blue Gentian

 The Blue Gentian  (Gentiana)

Our new friends Fritz Fritschel and Carol Langner from Meeker Park and Honolulu

proudly showed us their newly blooming blue gentians (8-8-12). Fritz quoted a verse

from Rainer Maria Rilke:

                  The Ninth Dueno Elegy

... The wanderer does not bring a handful of earth,

    The unutterable, from the mountain slope to the valley,

    but a "pure word he has learned,

    the blue and yellow gentian".

...Here is the time for the unutterable,

   its country.

...Behold, I'm alive on what? Neither childhood nor future

   opens less. Surplus of existence

   is welling up in my heart.

    

Bonus 8-7-12 Mary's Lake outflow

Water is crucial in Colorado. Estes Park water comes from the western slope and is

pumped out of a tunnel into Mary's Lake. I won't say what this reminded my wife of.

Bonus 9-5-12 Coyote

I noticed this young coyote on a morning walk on the 

Fish Creek Trail. He was concentrating on catching 

breakfast and was unconcerned about me.

Flower for the Day 9-5-12 Wild Blue Flax

Wild blue flax (Linum perrene lewisii) is a perennial

wild flower that I found by the Fish Creek Trail, my 

morning walking path in Estes Park. By mid afternoon 

it was already closed for the night. I find myself closing

for the night earlier than before.

Bonus 9-4-12 Bald Eagle

Behind our cabin in Estes Park there is a dead tree on which a 

bald eagle roosts usually late in the afternoon. There is another 

dead tree on the north shore of Lake Estes where he can be 

seen devouring the fish that he has caught in the lake. He is

affectionately called "Baldy" by local birders.

He is named Haliaeetus leucocephalus which is  sea (halo)

eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head (cephalus).

My son Gordon caught him with his mouth open.

In flight he is 

breathtaking..