Dave Hallock, Peak-to-Peak.  What happens in nature during the summer can be greatly influenced by the amount of moisture received during the winter and spring. One of the defining periods in 2015 was the unusually wet weather from mid-April to mid-July. People were having flashbacks to the Fall of 2013. The snowpack at the University Camp SNOTEL station, located at 10,200 feet elevation, was 192% of normal on May 29th.

So it was not surprising that Nature’s arrival this past spring was on the late side. The return of migrating birds was later than normal for most. Flowers were on the late side to bloom, as were aspen leafing out. Spring butterflies were virtually absent from the landscape.  Rocky Mountain orange-tips were the only spring butterfly I saw that had a good flight.

Some of the elk herds delayed their movement from winter range to spring transitional range. The movement has traditionally occurred with the full moon periods either in April or early May. However, this year they waited until the full moon period that overlapped the last week of May through the first week of June. Many did not stay long in the montane parklands. By mid-June I was coming across lots of elk tracks on Caribou Flats heading west; they were easy to track in the snow and wet soils.

Spring runoff in Middle Boulder Creek was set up to be exceptionally high. The late, above average snowpack was ready to push the creek flows to above average levels, but the weather stayed cool, so we got a prolonged, above average runoff.  On June 14 the stream gage where the creek enters Barker Reservoir hit around 620 cubic feet per second (cfs), which turned out to be the high for the year, but this was an event influenced by afternoon rains. Still, over 600 cfs is not a common occurrence. It went over 600 cfs in 2011, 2010, and 2003 (the year of “Big Snow”). You have to go back to 1965 to find another 600 cfs event. The all-time recorded record is 811 cfs in 1914.

Then in mid-July the moisture was turned off. The summer monsoons never really materialized and the weather stayed dry through the end of September. While early season (cool season) grasses were lush, the later warm season grasses, like mountain muhly, had more average to poor growth.

The Indian Peaks Breeding Bird Count was held for its 34th year. Total numbers of birds were slightly below average, though higher than last year. This is the fourth breeding count in a row where the total numbers have been below average.  The last extended below average stretch was 1997-2001.  The period from 2002-2011 saw above average numbers.  Total numbers seen in the subalpine were highest since 2009.  This runs counter to what we expected given the lateness of the snowpack and wet spring.

Helping to bring the numbers up from last year were better than average counts for mallard, great horned owl, common nighthawk, broad-tailed hummingbird (an all-time high), mountain chickadee, and green-tailed towhee.

No new species were observed for the summer count, but there were some good finds, including bald eagle (4th time on Breeding Count), Eurasian collared-dove (4th time, all since 2008), Say’s phoebe (5th time), willow flycatcher (13th time, but only 5th since 1998), Eastern kingbird (6th time), Western bluebird (13th time), and Western meadowlark (10th time).

Participants on the Indian Peaks Breeding Bird Count in 2015 included Linda Andes-Georges, Bev Baker, Maureen Blackford, Barbara Bolton, Earl Bolton,  Alex Brown, Diane Brown, Gillian Brown, George Coffee, Anthony Cowell, Marty Dick, Virginia Evans, Mike Figgs, Jean-Pierre Georges, Dave Hallock, Paula Hansley, Elaine Hill, Jim Holitza, Steve Jones, Bill Kaempfer, Carol Kampert, Elena Klaver, Steve Koral, Nan Lederer, Merle Miller, Sally Miller, Naseem Munshi, Carol Newman-Holitza, Mark Pscheid, Jeannie Reynolds, Cara Stiles, Lucy Stroock, Mike Tupper, and Patty Zishka. A big thanks to all.

Following are some of the January nature happenings in the Nederland area. Black bear females begin giving birth in late January while in hibernation in the den. Fox, coyote and beaver can be conducting courtship and mating activities. Great horned owls begin courtship activities. Listen for their calls at night when it is not too windy.