Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year

27 January 2022 Well the Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year is over.  As the year was winding down, the reality of the end of this amazing year started to set in. I admit that I was a little bummed that it was coming to an end. Of course, one person said to just do it again 2022 and let's raise more funds for the Roller Grant. HAHA! I'd be sleeping on the couch if I had considered doing that again! I'm also pretty sure my bikes and body (and leave balance at work) wouldn't hold up either! Joking aside, it was a little bit of a downer as the last days of the year came fast like a Peregrine Falcon on a flock of unsuspecting shorebirds. Suddenly the year was over. I've done 98% of my birding on foot or bike from my house since the pandemic began, so I thought the shifting of gears was likely going to be a shock to the system. I think the end of the year snuck up on me because of the "winter" was unseasonably warm with 50 and 60+ degree temperatures, incredibl...

30 December 2021 How this Green Big Year ended was bittersweet and completely unexpected. It was also a terrible day as entire neighborhoods burned to the ground in Boulder County in an almost unbelievable (but not an unsurprising) fire, fueled by 80-100+ mph winds. I was seeing reports of a couple fires in Boulder County, which were 25-30 miles to our north, but I didn't know the extent of what was going on. I had planned to work the rest of the afternoon since my morning/day birding plan was thwarted by the wind forecast, but I decided to go for a walk instead. I walked to my patch (Clement Park) to see what the smoke plume from the Boulder county fire(s) looked like. It felt a little wrong to go see what was happening, but I also assumed it was just a grass fire at this point because I didn't know where the fire was precisely. The winds, at times, were pretty strong on top of the hill at the park, but the 360 degree view from the top is pretty amazing. The dust being kicked ...