We don’t see enough Ring-necked Pheasants. They’re out on the eastern plains, and we saw a few while we were driving (We’re back at Chatfield by Matt’s house now.), but the best looks we’ve gotten lately were at Bosque del Apache on our way up this spring:
| The sunflowers turn back during the night. . . however this only occurs during the first part of the season. . . as the seeds form, they stay facing east with heads slightly down so the birds cannot eat them. . . if they follow the sun, the birds can sit on them and eat away, but facing slightly down, the birds cannot get to them. . . if too far down, they can sit on the stem and peck away. . . just the right amount of tilt. We live in sunflower country. . . this county grew 50 million dollars worth of sunflower seed last year. . . (Not culinary seeds but seeds for the guys that grow culinary seeds. . . mainly the midwest like south dakota, kansas etc.) Very intelligent little suckers!!!
— On Sun, 8/14/11, Steve Taylor <spt@thetaylorcompany.net> wrote: I wonder if some things we don’t think of as related really are. ….. Have you ever watched a field of sunflowers? The flower heads turn to follow the sun. By evening they are all pointed west. On Saturday morning we went birding and drove past a field of sunflowers before the sun had hit it yet. All the flower heads were pointed east. So I wonder: Do sunflowers anticipate? When the day is done and they’re all pointed west, do they remember that the sun is going to come up in the east the next morning, so turn themselves overnight to be ready for it? Or do they spend the night pointed west, then discover at sunrise the next day that the sun is in the east and they need to turn to meet it? I wonder. |
We love this place. We love it, but there are two reasons we don’t come here more often. In the summer, it’s hot. Way out in Eastern Colorado, it’s triple digits. The other reason is that it’s hard to get to. We don’t mind driving for several hours to get here, but once you leave the highway, you have to get down a 3 ½ mile washboard dirt county road to get here. It’s an okay road in a car, but it’s a pounding 5 to 10 mph drive in a motorhome.
Once you make it to the gate though, the roads are paved again. All the access roads and campsites at Wagon Wheel campground are paved. Even though it’s still hot now, it’s shoulder season already. There is hardly anyone else here; no-one else in our loop.
The water is lower now than it was before. We took a walk and found where the marina used to be. Years ago we rented a pontoon boat in this little cove with Skip and Connie, and paddled our big yellow Prijon kayak back and forth across the inlet too.
And they have Red-headed Woodpeckers.
But it’s a bittersweet return to Bonny Lake. When we checked in, we found out the State Park is closing in October. Budget cuts. We’re having our last visit here ever.
We broke the gravitational pull of the Denver Repair Shop. We blasted out of orbit and landed 140 miles north in Wheatland, Wyoming.
Nice visit with Bill and Marge (of course). The farm looks the same.
It always feels good.
