When it's springtime in the Rockies, you are guaranteed a wild run of weather:
Thunder and hail storms, hot sunny days, spitting snow, whipping winds,
and late afternoons when cumulous clouds build into towering anvils.
It's a great, ever-changing show that I never tire of watching.
Here are some of photos of this year's show
near and along a stretch of Piney Creek in Aurora:
Drenching Rain
Aurora, Colorado
May 15, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Pounding Hail
Aurora, Colorado
May 15, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
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Noisy Grackles
Aurora, Colorado
April 9, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
A Strutting Grackle
Aurora, Colorado
May 16, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
The trees are dioecious,
with male and female flowers
occurring on different trees.
Male Catkins
(staminate flowers)
Aurora, Colorado
May 8, 2013
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Pollen from male cottonwood trees is carried on the wind.
Plains Cottonwood Tree
Aurora, Colorado
May 15, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Emerging Female Catkins
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Emerging Female Catkins
Plains Cottonwood Tree
Aurora, Colorado
May 3 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Wind-born pollen pollenates female catkins (pistillate flowers).
Plains Cottonwood Tree
Aurora, Colorado
May 15, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Cottonwood seed capsules develop after fertilization.
Plains Cottonwood Tree
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Seed Capsules and New Leaves.
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Bursting New Leaves
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Snow in June
Cottonwood seeds are released on the breezes.
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
June 25, 2013
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Harbinger of Spring
Male Robin
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
April 26, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Our Local Fire Station
"Thank You First Responders!
You Are Loved!"
Aurora, Colorado
April 25, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Local Heroes
"Thank You First Responders!
You Are Loved!"
Aurora, Colorado
April 25, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Male House Finch
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Earlier this month I spotted the first muskrat I have seen
since a flash flood scoured Piney Creek in our area almost eight years ago.
That doesn't mean muskrats disappeared after the flood.
It means I couldn't find them.
I've been trying to capture this pesky rodent
with my little point-and-shoot Canon ever since.
All I've captured are the ripples marking its dive
and a glimpse of its head in the reeds.
and a glimpse of its head in the reeds.
Muskrat Ripples
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Muskrat Feeding on Reeds
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Squirrels Frolicking
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
March 24, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Spring Equinox
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
March 21, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Blue Jay
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
April 9, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
More Happy Talk
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Spring Butterfly
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
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Spring Butterfly
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Baby Green Leaves
Bursting Out #1
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Baby Green Leaves
Bursting Out #2
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Comforting Rock Talk
for a Challenging Time
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
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Cumulus Clouds
Aurora, Colorado
May 20, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Male Plains Cottonwood
Flowers Gone, Baby Leaves Bursting
Along Piney Creek
Aurora, Colorado
May 17, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
If anyone had told me that I would spend well over a decade
snapping photos in all seasons along a small stretch of Piney Creek,
I wouldn't have believed it. But I have.
Springtime is my favorite season,
until the next, and the following, even winter!
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until the next, and the following, even winter!
Towering Anvil
Aurora, Colorado
May 20, 2020
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
Till next time ~
Fundy Blue
On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved
For Map Lovers Like Me:
Location of Aurora, Colorado, USA
Area Where I Took the Photographs
(by the asterisk in the lower middle)
Map Data © 2018 Google United States
Southern Aurora and Northern Parker
Map Data © 2019 Google United States
Adapted from a Sign in the Park
Red-Tailed Hawk Park
Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved