Skywatch Friday - NCAR

What could be more appropriate for Skywatch than a photo taken from the grounds of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado?

On Monday, John and I took one of my favorite hikes in the foothills of the Front Range. The hike up from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) traverses a range of habitats from dry grassland characteristic of the plains east of the Rockies, up to sub-alpine meadows. The hike does not get up into the tundra regions. That's probably just as well. As it is, this is a long and steep hike.

Wolf Spider. The small round things on her back are babies.

We began very early, and started seeing cool stuff almost immediately. The Calippe fritillaries were camera shy, but a mama wolf spider and her babies posed very nicely for us.

Western Green Hairstreak (Callophrys perplexa apama)



Western Pine Elfin (Callophrys eryphon)

The hike runs up Bear Creek Canyon . As we climbed the canyon, we were treated to a dazzling array of butterflies. Most unexpected of these was the Western Green Hairstreak. It's hard to believe that such a color can exist in the butterfly world. The males are especially brilliant as they sit on damp sand to take moisture and minerals. The Western Pine Elfin was a new species for me.

Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera sp.)

The plants were a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar. I even saw a patch of rattlesnake plantain orchids. These were just beginning to put up flower spikes. But with rattlesnake plantain, the flowers are inconspicuous- the real show is the beautiful variegated foliage. The variegation on these plants is much more limited to the leaf midribs than what I'm used to. I suspect that this is a different species of Goodyera than the one I grew up with.

Anthaxia sp.- a metallic wood boring beetle (Buprestidae)


Longhorn Beetle. I think it's Stenocors obtusus- I'm trying to confirm this.

We progressed slowly, as we were taking pictures and collecting as we went. It was a good day for beetles. We found (but did not photograph) sumac leaf eating beetles at the extreme western edge of their range. There was one species each of longhorn beetle and metallic wood boring beetle.

Delphiniums near the turnaround point of the hike

We turned around at the trail junction on the ridge line. The trail here is in a meadow filled with beautiful delphinium flowers. We saw, the only two tiger beetles that we would encounter today right where we turned around. One would be the only Cicindela longilabris that I would see during my entire stay in Colorado. We also saw members of two high altitude genera of butterflies- the Arctics and the Alpines. The Uhler's arctic was difficult to photograph, but I did get one shot that, with cropping, gives an idea of the general look of these butterflies.

Uhler's Arctic (Oeneis uhleri)

By the time we arrived back at NCAR it was nearly 6 PM. We had one of those dinners where everyone just wolfs down their food and doesn't say much.

For more Skywatch Friday, go here.