Dave Hallock, Eldora. Mother Nature has not been making things easy on many of her creatures this spring. The abundant moisture has, well, put a damper on the normal cycles and activities of many animals.

Very few butterflies have been observed, except for a few species that overwinter as adults, such as mourning cloaks and hoary commas. Birds that nest on the tundra and in the krummholz (the stunted tree islands just below the tundra) have virtually no bare ground for their foraging and nesting activities. Flocks of American pipits and horned larks, which normally nest on the tundra, have been seen in lower elevation meadows.

Many white-crowned sparrows, who favor nesting in the krummholz, are still hanging around our feeders in Eldora. Other migratory bird species appear to be on time or late in returning. Some of the elk herds are late in returning to their transitional range in the upper montane. And some of the Aspen clones are running a little late in leafing out.

This spring’s moisture is being compared to the spring of 1995. I remember that spring. There is a pipe that runs under the original log cabin portion of our house that daylights in the crawlspace. I always wondered if it had a function. In May of 1995 I was reading in the living room, when I realized there was the sound of water running under the house.

So I ventured into the crawlspace and found out what that pipe was for – to take excessive water from a seep behind the house under it. It obviously had not run since newer portions of the house had been built. So I had to buy some flexible pipe and drill a hole in the foundation wall to take the water all the way under the house and down towards the creek. After that I put in a French drain on the backside of the house.

I have been going through various notes and data about how animals and plants fared in 1995. There were some spectacular wildflower displays in subalpine meadows, such as along the Arapaho Pass trail. There were some good flights of butterflies in late summer, but early season flights appeared suppressed. Early cool season grasses and later warm season grasses had abundant growth; in fact, this was true for most vegetation. The greater growth of trees in 1995 is evident in their rings of trees that have recently been cut down.

The Indian Peaks Bird Counts, conducted since 1982, provide some historic perspective on how nesting birds might fare this summer. While we counted an average number of birds in 1995, the next four years were well below average, particularly in the subalpine and alpine areas. The impacts of a late snowpack on numbers of birds often shows up the following years due to poor nesting success.

And there is evidence that a late snowpack results in poorer avian nesting success. Maria Pereyra has studied the nesting biology of dusky flycatchers, a species that also nests here, in the high elevations of the central Sierra Nevada of California for 15 years. She found that in years of light snowpack, nesting birds that laid eggs by mid-June successfully fledged more young than during years with a late snowpack. So the impacts of this year’s snowpack on the numbers of birds may not be seen until next year.

Even with all the  moisture, the flows in Middle Boulder Creek were below average during May as the temperatures were cooler than normal so the snowpack was not melting. The snowpack at the University Camp snow station (Mountain Research Station), which is located at 10,300 feet, was 192% of normal for this time of year on May 29th. The predicted warmer temperatures for the first week of June should get the streams flowing fuller.

Following are some of the June nature happenings in the Nederland area. The last of the migrating birds will arrive in early June, these being Swainson’s thrush, Cordilleran flycatcher, western wood-pewee, and black swift.  While hiking up the trail to Arapaho Pass, take a look over to the waterfall on the opposite hillside that comes out of Diamond Lake; a small colony of black swifts nests behind the falls. You may see the swifts hunting for insects above the valley. Clark’s nutcrackers will already have young-on-the-wing, flying around in boisterous flocks.

Elk are calving.  In late June and into July they will move up into the Indian Peaks.  Moose generally calve in late May and early June.  Short-tailed weasels (ermine) give birth in May, June, and July. Pine squirrels are born from mid-May through mid-July. Marmot young emerge from their dens beginning in late June.

Butterflies can make a strong showing. Look for orange-tips, small white butterflies with bright orange tips, patrolling up and down canyons. Large swallowtails begin emerging, the beautiful tiger swallowtails generally found around willows and aspen. Common ringlets, common alpines and chryxus arctics are seen flitting in meadows. Parnassians, large white butterflies with black and orange spots who stay low to the ground, also emerge in meadows in June, often tied to the blooming of their host plant, stonecrop.

Common meadow flowers for June include larkspur, golden banner, wallflower, and mountain parsley. Plants blooming on the tundra are found in disturbed areas, meadows and fell fields, including mertensia, sky pilot, wallflower, alpine lily, old-man-of-the-mountain, and the diminutive blue forget-me-nots.  Pine trees produce lots of pollen throughout June: aaachoo!