Monday: The Pleasant Valley Report

Friday the 13th was a perfect spring day here in Laporte, Colorado. There wasn't a cloud in the cerulean blue sky, and a gentle breeze blew. It wasn't too cold in the shade or too hot in the sun. We got quite a bit of vegetable gardening done, along with some accompanying sunburn.

Saturday was rainy, cloudy, and cold. Sunday less wet, but still cold enough that we built a fire in the wood stove yesterday afternoon. The weather changes on a dime around here this time of year.

I posted this on Facebook last week, but here it is for those who don't follow that venue. There was a mountain lion seen in town (Fort Collins) last week. Although everyone knows these big cats are prowling the cliffs in many of our natural areas, you don't often see one inside city limits. Here's the latest story from the Fort Collins Coloradoan:
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110512/UPDATES01/110512006/Mountain-lion-returns-Fort-Collins?odyssey=mod%7Clateststories

Closer to home, in the backyard, some new bird species have been spotted: Black-headed and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Bullock's and Baltimore Orioles, and Cassin's Finches. For a 10-day period every May we see many beautiful blue Lazuli Buntings on our sawhorse feeder, and this year is no exception. There are about a dozen or so of these birds on the feeder at any one time.




Sawhorse feeder with Lazuli Bunting males

 
And finally, two fuzzy chicks are visible in the Red-tailed Hawk nest in the trees beyond the fence.