Butterlies, Eagles, and more

Late this summer and earlier this fall their was an unusual massive migration of painted lady butterflies along the front range.  In fact, one day the Denver Post and several of the tv stations had stories about a strange image on local weather radar.  Turns out it was a cloud of painted ladies.  I first noticed them in numbers in late summer when the butterfly bush blossomed.  There are always a few painted ladies feeding on it, but this year there would be maybe fifty at a time, plus the usual big yellow swallowtail that's always floating around in the backyard.  On our walks down thru the field above the lake there's a lot of rabbit brush that blooms early in the fall. For several days there were just clouds of the butterflies feeding on the yellow flowers - thousands of them.  And in the backyard there was a constant stream of the insects passing thru.  It was amazing.  I never got a picture that really told the story of just how many of them there were.

Painted lady on rabbit brush near Lake Arbor in Arvada, CO. Oct. 2017.

More painted ladies on rabbit brush.  Every bush had 30 or 40 butterlies feeding. 

Saw this butterfly down in Brown's Canyon along the Arkansas in Sept.  I'm not very good on butterflies, but I think it's either a metalmark or fritillary.  Many varieties of each. 

Pretty sure this is a mourning cloak.  I have seen them more colorful.  Also down in Brown's Canyon in Sept. 

Saw a few other butterflies this summer while camping this summer.  Just seemed like a good year for butterflies.

Rocky I went camping down at Lake Pueblo in late October.  It was very warm and nice.  Woke up one morning to the serenade of a mockingbird.  I always enjoy hearing them sing down there.  Growing in Memphis, sometimes in the spring the mockingbirds would sing all night long.  With the windows open before air-conditioning, you could enjoy their serenade all night long.

Mockingbird at sun-up at Lake Pueblo State Park, Pueblo, CO., Oct. 2017.

Same bird in same spot a few minutes later.  It had flown off but came back to the same perch.

Video of mockingbird singing.  I hope the video will play on your machine.  

Just last week Rocky and I went out to Jackson Lake on the plains about 65 miles east of Denver for one night.  Along the south shore of the lake there were seven bald eagles, mostly 2nd or third year birds.  Only saw one adult, but it was a long ways off.  Couldn't get a good pic.

Bald eagle, Jackson Lake State Park, near Orchard, CO., Nov. 2017.

Another bald eagle at Jackson Lake. 

Down at the lake this time of year, it's interesting to watch the snow geese and unusual hybrid that come in with the huge flocks of white cheeked geese.  Guess they get mixed up in the mass migrations south.  Seen a couple of snow geese for sure, and a couple of what look to be like snow hybrids, but they are pretty far out in the lake to be sure.  The other day I saw this white bodied goose that had the head of a white cheek.  Not sure if it's a hybrid or  it it's leucistic, where some of the feathers have no pigmentation.  I hear there are some brants and greater white-fronted geese around town, but I haven't seen any yet.  I just find it intriguing how different species get mixed up in migration and cross breed as well.

Either a white cheek/snow goose or Ross's goose hybrid or leucistic white cheek at Lake Arbor, Arvada, CO.,  Nov. 2017.

Eclipse Adventure

When we were in Nebraska earlier this summer on vacation, we kept seeing all the excitement about the eclipse in August.  It caught me up and I decided to go.  My cousin, Vicki and her husband John, live and work on a buffalo ranch up along the North Platte River 11 miles  west of town, so I'd have a place to stay.  Motel rooms and camping spot were booked solid long ago. The interstate from Denver was pretty busy and people were driving awfully fast so I decided to take some of the old highways that paralell the Union Pacfic and old Burlington.  I could watch trains and experience the country.    I like the old highways because that's where you see history  and pass thru the hearts of old towns.  The old highway, US 30, the Linclon Highway, also parallels the Oregon and Mormon trails.  I stopped to photograph and read markers at a couple of spots.

Many of the old depots along the Union Pacific through Nebraska are long gone, but the depot in Julesburg still stands as a local museum.  It was Sunday and closed.  

Historical marker for the old Phelps Hotel in Big Springs, Nebraska. 

The historic Phelps hotel in Big Springs, Nebraska.

Marker for the Pony Express station in Deuel County, Nebraska.  I guess there's some controversy about the exact name of this station.   The Union Pacific mainline is in the background with the telephone poles.

Now this is a puzzle to me.  Why the pioneers following the Oregon Trail to the west coast waited to join up with the North Platte River this far west is a mystery to me. They could have avoided this hill climb to Ash Hollow by following the North Platte where it joins the South Platte just east of North Platte.  I have to look into this.  

Sign to the buffalo ranch where my cousin Vicki and her husband live.

There was a nice flock of wild turkeys  around the house.

This stuffed snow goose was hanging from the ceiling when Vicki and John moved in.   They just left it there.  Snow geese and sandhill cranes migrate thru the fields around their house in the spring and fall.  

John, my cousin Vicki's husband grilled us some great steaks.  John is 74 but still works  helping with the buffalo husbandry, and drives trucks for the local fertilizer and grain haulers.  He is from the Azore Islands.  

 I thought I might take my camper and camp in their yard, as motels were all sold out.  It was pretty warm and humid, though, so I opted for staying in my cousins's spare bedroom.  We had a nice dinner of steaks and produce from John's garden.  Didn't sleep that good as the roosters crowed very early and I could hear buffalo snorting in the nigh.  Woke up eclipse day morning, and the North Platte valley was shrouded in heavy fog and drizzle.  I figured it was a bust, but the local weather said it would burn off by mid-morning, so I headed out for my selected viewing point for totality in Tryon, a tiny burg about 40 miles north.  It was a tense drive thru the fog.  Lots of white tail deer out, and people driving way too fast for the conditions.  By the time I got to Tryon the fog was lifting, but it was still mighty cloudy.  The town had set up parking in a big mowed hayfield, with viewing across the road on a nice hill overlooking the rolling grassing Nebraska sandhills.  I really like the sandhills. Just mile after mile of gently, sometimes more than gently, rolling sea of grass.  The town had set up some tents for shade, benches made of hay bales and boards, and there was food and water.  I was also surprised that there was a professional astronomer who was very unobtrusive in providing some helpful tips and facts over a PA. He kept the viewing crowd I'd estimate at a thousand or better informed of the progress of the eclipse.

When I arrived at Tryon the fog had lifted, but heavy cloud cover still obscured the sky.  There were many RV's and campers on the far side of the parking field.  The pivot irrigation rig divided the field for campers and parking.  

Many places in the sandhills were a sea of yellow sunflowers, but big flags of these  primrose? stood above the sunflowers in many patches along the road. 

This is looking southwest at the viewing site at Tryon.  That's my camera with paper cardboard solar filter in the foreground.  

A lady from the North Platte visitors bureau wore this sun suit.  The NP visitors bureau had organized the event and bused in many bus loads of viewers.  

This dad and son duo is enjoying the eclipse. They were very laid back.  I hope they still had eye sight when it was over.  

It occurred slowly at first, it wasn't until about 80% or more coverage before I really noticed a marked decrease in ambient light.  I took some photos with a cardboard filter I had bought, along with a couple pair of eclipse glasses.  I left a couple of glasses with my cousin back in North Platte.  I had read where I should practice shooting the sun and moon prior to the event, but I hadn't done it.  I was somewhat apprehensive about it, and it did prove rather challenging with rapid and wild variations in exposure settings.  During totality, which lasted two minutes and a few seconds, I worked feverishly to get some shots.  I almost wish I had just forgotten the photography and just experienced totality.  It was quite brief, but very dramatic.  It came on rather suddenly.  I looked around  a few seconds before the astronomer on the PA announced, "glasses back on in ten seconds. "  It wasn't completely totally dark, as there was light around on all horizons.  The astronomer had said something about some odd waves of light that might ripple over the landscape just prior to totality,  I had my eye in the viewfinder then, but I heard people around me mention that they has seen the phenomenon.  It was a totally cool experience.  I would highly recommend it.

It's starting.  

Half way there.  The reduction in ambient light was not that noticeable.  

Almost there.  It was still like a very cloudy day.  The sun is amazing.  

Totality!  It was so cool.  Two minutes and several seconds flew by so fast.  

Ten seconds to glasses back on. Note the red flares on the right side.  

Grabbed this shot just as totality was about to end.  

This beautiful quilt was a door prize, I think.  I couldn't quite make out the announcement other than a  Tryon resident won it.  How appropriate.  It was beautiful.  

It was a very friendly experience.  There were people from all over the country and the globe.  Just right around me I heard people saying they were form China, Poland, and several US states.  Everybody was very friendly and happy, and helping each other out with glasses, filters, etc.

I packed up and left after totality hoping to avoid traffic.  Didn't work.  After visiting a craft fair at the high school hoping to buy some t-shirts which had long ago sold out, I drove west 40 miles to the small sandhill community of Arthur.  What a beautiful drive through the undulating, grass covered sandhills, (I read where the Nebraska sandhills are the largest grass covered area of sand dunes in the world) which are punctuated with some small flat valleys that host large stands of huge cottonwoods and some beautiful ranches.  I kept wanting to pull off for a pic, but I was in heavy traffic, and there was precious little shoulders to allow for a pull off.  What pull-offs there were were occupied by eclipse viewers.  I got to Arthur to encounter a traffic jam.  The small community of 145 had hosted a viewing that looked to be as big as what I'd been to in Tryon.  People were pouring out of Arthur and also coming down the highway from Alliance further west in the sandhills.  Once I got thru town, it was pretty much bumper to bumper, but things flowed along pretty smoothly.

I took a few more back roads on the way back to Denver to enjoy the country and allow the main arteries to clear up a bit.  Stillwhen I left Sidney going south it was still a steady stream of vehicles all the way back to Denver.

Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad I went.  I would highly recommend traveling to a totality site in the eclipse coming in, is it 2024.  I see where it's going to be in the eastern half of the US and with a wider path of totality.  I heard people talking about the ellipse back in Devner where it was like 70% or so.  They said it got a little darker, but more like when a cloud passes over the sun.  There is nothing like experiencing totality.

Nebraska Homesteads

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We were looking for a way to vacation this summer that could include our dog, Rocky.  Both our families had family ties in Nebraska, so we decided on an RV trip back to Nebraska to look for old homesteads and some other sight seeing.

Our first stop just 60 miles east of Denver was at the Wiggins reststop.  Just after we pulled up, these two old cars pulled in next to us, each pulling a small camping trailer.  The two men and a lady driving the cars belonged to an old car club and had been traveling around Nebraska camping out.  Top speed - 55 mph. 

Our first night we spent camped next to the North Platte River in North Platte at the Buffalo Bill Ranch State Recreation Area.  Connie and Rocky were enjoying a walk along the banks of the river.  

North Platte is the location of Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world.  They recently built the Golden Spike observation tower which allows visitors to see the scope of the operation.  On old Union Pacific dining car sits outside the towers.

Here I am taking in the view from the towers.  Bailey Yard is truly a huge operation with several classification yards and a huge diesel servicing and repair facility. 

One of the exhibits inside the Golden Spike Tower is a display explaining the World War II canteen that  serviced the hundred of troop trains that passed through North Platte.  

The campground at North Platte was alive with birds.  I think what we have here is a  second summer male orchard oriole.  

There were tons of yellow warblers in the campground. 

Connie is reading an interpretive sign about the annual migration of the sandhill cranes through Nebraska.  Something like half a million cranes visit the area each spring and fall.  My cousin lives just north of the river here and says for several weeks in late Feb. and March there will be thousands in the fields around their house.  

Driving along approaching Anselmo in the eastern Sandhills, we noticed this odd tower sticking up out of the trees in the  small town.  What on earth?  Here stood this large church, the Cathedral of the Sandhills.  We didn't try the doors, but were told by a lady in the next town that it had once been a thriving church when the small towns of the area were more densely populated.  

Sign for the Cathedral of the Sandhills. 

The Platte River flows right by Mahoney State Park.  You can climb a tower for the view. 

This gigantic flag flies out front of the main lodge at Mahoney State Park where we camped.  It was truly huge.  You could hear  it flapping some distance away.  The lodge sits on a bluff just above the Platte River and you could see the flags for several miles out on I-80.  

This is our camp at Mahoney State Park along the Platte River about 30 miles west of Omaha.  We kept Rocky on a rope most of the time in obeisance of park rules, but we let him off for a few minutes to play frisbee.  He loves frisbee and has become quite a good frisbee dog.

Here I am outside Omaha Union Station, now the Durham Museum.

As a boy I stood on this viaduct over the train platforms and watched  the streamliners of the Union Pacifc, Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, and the Burlington. 

This is the grand, art deco main waiting room in Omaha Union Station.  I spent many a summer evening and early morning waiting for trains there.  The ticket booth for the Museum in the middle of the picture wasn't there in the old days.  Where it stands now, was about where we would meet a redcap to engage for watching our bags and later helping us to an early boarding of our train. 

When I visited Omaha Union Station in the 50s and 60s the arrival departure board  listed considerably fewer trains than the one of display here depicting 1937 schedules. 

The Burlington Station was across the train platforms from Union Station.  There used to be a pedestrian bridge across the tracks and platforms connecting the two depots.  You boarded trains by doing down escalators and stairs from that bridge.  

I sat on this very bench as a young boy.  Today, they have these sculptures depicting travelers of the past.  When you approach them they strike up a conversation.  The sailor was asking me why I had interrupted their conversation. 

Another of the sculptures depicts a redcap helping a lady and her children down to the trains, just like a redcap helped us many years ago.

The museum has several old passenger cars on display on what used to be track one down on the platforms.  Here I am boarding one of them.  

Connie is sitting in one of the sections in one of the streamlined sleepers from the 1950s.  

This is the lounge section in one of the cars.  I remember as a kid going thru the lounge car a few times.  There would be this cloud of cigarette smoke inversion about mid way up the car.  The volunteer in the car said when they first moved this car into the museum the lamp shades were so stained with smoke, it was like the lights weren't even turned on.  

Here I am enjoying a smoke in the lounge car.  What is that thing you're smoking, Bill?

While we were down enjoying the old passenger cars I heard the rumble of a train and throb of what sounded like Amtrak engines.  We hurried up the stairs and sure enough, there was a late California Zephyr over at the Amrak station adjacent to the old Burlington station.  

This was the uniform of the redcaps who worked at most large railroad stations across  the United States.    They often would meet the trains down on the platforms where you could employ them to help you with your bags.  They would also store them for you while you waited for your next train.  Upon departure you would meet them at the redcap station where they would have your bags and they would often arrange for you to  board the train early.  We always hire one in Omaha.

This is the former home of Connie's Uncle Bob and Aunt Dot.  Before they moved to town they operated a small dairy farm just north of Lincoln, but we were unable to locate.  We think it was scraped when they widened the highway several years back. 

As a boy I travelled with my mother and later my sister to visit mom's family in North Platte.  Each summer both westbound and eastbound from our home in Memphis, Tenn. we would spend some time in the Omaha Union Station.  I have always wanted to go back there and visit the depot again.  On our westbound journey we would arrive in Omaha about 5PM on the Missouri Pacific "Missouri River Eagle," a very nice train.  We would have dinner in the big dinning room in the eastern half of the station, then we had a five hour wait till our Union Pacific milk train departed about 11PM.  First stop was the information booth that had a marvelous display of railroad timetables.  I'd ask the man for a handful of timetables from various distant railroads.  I could spend hours with those timetables mapping out wide-ranging train journeys.  My mom and sister would go rest in the ladies lounge and I would sit out on the big wooden bench outside the women's room in the big warm depot.  I'd get bored and wander out onto the viaduct outside the depot that went over the dozen or so tracks between Union Station and the Burlington Depot just to the south.  I would stand there for hours and watch the parade of colorful transcontinental and Denver bound trains of the Union Pacific, Burlington, and Rock Island.  Come about 10:30 we would go meet the Redcap whom we had checked our bags with upon arrival in the early afternoon.  This man, I think his name was Mike, was a tall man in the proverbial redcap would meet us with our bags and guide us down onto the tracks to an early boarding onto the Armour yellow and gray coach that would convey us thru the night to meet Grandma and other family in North Platte.  Just like when we boarded the train in Memphis to start our journey it was such a welcome relief to step into the air conditioned comfort of the train escaping the heat and humidity of the Omaha night.

On our eastbound journey, we would arrive in Omaha about 3AM  and wouldn't pull-out again till about 8:30AM.  Again, mom and my sister would go rest on the plush couches in the ladies lounge.  I was again relegated to the hard old great wooden benches.  So, of course, you know where I went - yep, out onto the viaduct to watch the trains.  Come about 8AM we would meet Mike or another Redcap with our bags and board the eastbound Missouri River Eagle for our trip to Kansas City, St. Louis and eventually Memphis.

So, visiting the old depot was visit rich in memories for me.

Other places on our journey included a brief stop in North Platte to visit my cousins who still live there.  We also visited the Golden Spike Tower which allows you to see the immense, world's largest rail yard where my uncle and cousin once worked.  We made a short incursion into the eastern edge of the Nebraska sandhills.  A vast rolling sea of waving, tall grass prairie.  The western portion of the sandhills is more scenic, but the eastern third of the region is also quite beautiful.

Connie's dad's family were German immigrants to Lincoln and Beatrice, so we made visits to both those towns to look for old family homes and farms.  And, while in Beatrice we also visited the Homestead National Monument.  Overall it was a fun road trip.

In Beatrice we were able to locate the house where Connie's dad, Don, was born.  Still standing and occupied but  looking a bit dilapidated.  

We visited the old Beatrice cemetery where Connie was able to locate the graves of several of her ancestors.  

Just west of Beatrice we visited the Homestead National Monument.  It contains very interesting displays describing the homestead act and subsequent movement west.  We learned you can indeed claim a homestead, but today the available sites are all in very remote desert locations.  Guess you could start a lizard ranch or something.  

On the way back across Nebraska we visited the great Arch at Kearney.  It contains  some great interpretive displays explaining the westward movement along the Oregon, Mormon and 49er trails.  

We stopped again in North Platte on the way home to briefly visit the World War II museum out along the South Platte River. 

One of the displays there commemorated the famous World War II canteen at the North Platte depot that sever many a sandwich to the thousands of servicemen who passed through on the troop trains.  My mom was a volunteer at the canteen.  

Plaque explaining the canteen lady statue above.