Following a prolonged drought and a warm autumn, the past week has been much more typical of winter along the Front Range. Two decent snowstorms, interspersed with periods of sunny, mild weather is par for the course in January.
Here on our Littleton farm, the wildlife has become invigorated by the snow and seasonal cooling. Songbirds, dominated by house finches, dark-eyed juncos, chickadees and magpies have become far more conspicuous and our resident Townsend's solitaire has been singing from the treetops. I have previously mentioned the nocturnal mating calls of our red fox but raccoons have also become hard to ignore, attempting to escape the winter chill beneath the eves of our farmhouse.
Perhaps most characteristic of the Front Range winter are the massive and restless flocks of Canada geese, noisily moving about to find open grasslands amidst the snowy landscape. Their calls and spectacular flights offer reassurance that, for now, winter weather has rescued our ecosystem.
