Flora and fauna

I’m enjoying a beautiful 50° Tuesday morning from my kitchen nook in Littleton. I’m so glad I get to enjoy some Fall colors from my breakfast table, along with our avian visitors. 

Here's our first customer at the newly refilled hummingbird feeder this morning. I only loaded up half the amount this time, as we’re already deep into October, and I didn’t really expect them to be hanging around after September. They say to stop putting the feeder out, a week after there have been no visitors, but so far, we’re seeing a bunch of visits every day.

 

 

Here’s a Finch on the tire swing feeder, eyeing the incoming Finch, that landed on the twine above. 

 

I’m also glad to have one of my favorite fall trees, the Purple Autumn Ash, visible from my front yard, when taking the dog out. This one's just beginning to change colors for the season.

 

Being a guy who's fascinated by all modes of transportation, I also like hearing the sound of the light rail off in the distance. Reminds me of some evenings when I was a kid, and we were visiting my grandmother in Alexandria, when I could hear the trains off in the distance, while lying in my bed on the screened-in front porch. 

Yesterday was supposed to be a bike riding day, but I only made it about a mile and a half from the house, almost to the river, when I went over a discontinuity in the trail, and the impact from dropping two inches broke yet another rear wheel spoke. With Murphy's Law being alive and well, this spoke is also on the side of the wheel with the cassette, which is difficult for me to remove, due to the removal notch having taken damage over the years. So I'm fuming to myself, and taking my usual approach to a roadblock - procrastinating until I calm down a little. 

Friday walk

We enjoyed a chilly (40s) and moist Friday afternoon walk in Lee Gulch, down to the South Platte River and back. We saw lots of colorful flora...

 

This noisy little Blue Jay was talking to the world, and monopolizing the bird seed bowls, before we left for out walk.

 

Red flowers peeking out between the evergreens along the wall of our neighborhood.

 

Bright orange berries

So many cool bright yellow colors around now

 

My favorite Purple Autumn Ash trees are starting to change now

 

Cool line of pumpkins in a yard

 

Gorgeous blue berries

 

Nice red leaves with sheep in the yard

 

Pretty pink crabapples in a yard

 

Crabapple tree above that yard

 

More pretty berries

 

Bright yellows

 

One of my favorite red and green colored trees

 

Pretty pink berries

 

Gorgeous flaming Purple Autumn Ash tree

 

Bright red

 

Interesting brown-edged leaf and little berries

 

The Mary Carter Greenway Trail sign

 

Nice peaceful view of the South Platte River

 

Pretty red near the tunnel under Santa Fe Drive

 

Another great looking Purple Autumn Ash tree

 

Cute little red squirrel on the deck the next morning
 

Echo Lake

We had a fun back-country Thursday drive to Echo Lake, followed by a short walk along the lake, and a visit to help out the soon-to-be-evicted long-term owners of the Lodge and Gift Shop there. Couldn’t resist grabbing lunch there too.

We paused in Evergreen, to take a photo of the dam at Evergreen Lake, which had some nice Fall color

The Evergreen Lake dam and nearby Fall color looked even nicer, when we stepped out of the picture

Pretty panoramic view of a few fall colors (mostly Aspen) on the hillside, and the mountains in the distance, looking northwest from highway 103

 

Photo memento of the Echo Lake Lodge

Pretty view of Echo Lake, with just a little snow on the mountains today

A teeny bit of Fall red color by the trail

Starting out on our walk. We followed the short trail to the other end of the lake. The last time we were here, there was half a foot of snow on the ground, the lake was frozen over, and the freezing cold wind was blowing strongly. This was so much nicer.

Delicate pink flowers on some thistles by the lake

Enjoying the sparkles on the lake

Gorgeous view to the south. I suspect that Mount Evans (elevation 14,272) is in this picture, along with possibly Rogers Peak, Mount Warren, Gray Wolf Mountain, and Mount Bierstadt, which are all in a southerly direction, although, I can't identify any of them.

A little more red Fall color along the trail

Solitary white flower by the lake

Another great view to the south

Nice view of the lodge from the other end of the lake

Hard to see the Spanish Moss on the trees, but I liked the look. Reminded me of camping as a kid.

Closer view of the Spanish Moss

After doing our best to bolster the economy in the gift shop, I turned my efforts to the snack bar. Loved their delicious buffalo chili, and pudding cake with coffee.

Better view looking out the snack bar window

Not surprised to see that the road up to Mount Evans is closed for the season. This is the highest paved road in the continental United States.

Home again! I think I caught this Finch photo, just as they shook their head and threw a seed away

Two finches NOT attempting to coexist in the same location - one was incoming, and neither one was at all interested in sharing that spot