That and the standing water in my back yard let me know it is indeed spring time in the Rockies!

(OK, so I have only had a little standing water in my backyard this spring, unlike the lake I had last May, so that is a bit of an exaggeration, though I notice some of my neighbors still have their pumps and hoses out ready to remove water from their crawlspaces and yards. I am hoping that the "too much snow/rain" in April is all we will have to deal with this year - one really bad, wet spring is all we should have in a decade, right?!?)

We don't see many lark buntings or burrowing owls here in the middle of Westminster, but I am glad to hear they are here and thriving. Waiting to hear my first meadowlark of the year, too, but nothing yet.

I realize robins are here all year round, but they sure don't seem very active until springtime so it is almost as if they have just arrived. I love hearing the chorus of their voices singing to greet the dawn, which doesn't seem to start happening until the spring. Oh, and another herald of spring, along with the grosbeaks, are the lovely Starlings, lol, that have started to show up here in Westminster. They are kind of pretty when they sit in the sunlight with their feathers shining all blue-black, but perhaps not my most favorite of "non-native" birds.

Soon I am hoping I won't need to wear gloves, a coat and a hat when I take my dog for a walk at 5 AM - yep, it is still that chilly to these old bones here in mid-May. I am determined to get my vegetable garden in this weekend despite the fact that nighttime temperatures are not being cooperative!

Thank you for this encouraging thread, Zach, and happy springtime, everyone!

Holly

Yes.

You are beginning to realise that there are other critters that appreciate your neighborhoods; not just the ones ..

. that failed in making an escape, last fall.

ت Steve

It sure has been an odd spring, and still doesn't feel right. All the spring crops I planted - on the same schedule I'd use any other year - are weeks behind. Case in point: I'd normally have harvested some radishes and baby greens by Mother's Day, but they're still in seedling stage at the moment - I just thinned radish seedings yesterday, and they were sowed five week ago! Growth is happening, but it is all so very slow this year.

Holly, you should come out the the Arsenal sometime if you want to hear meadowlarks. They have been singing their ever lovin' heads off for a solid month now at least. Hey, at least they are good singers! Robins too have a nice voice, and the dark headed grosbeaks are terrific too (sometimes to be confused with an over-enthusiastic robin, very similar, just a little more "melodious"). Kingbirds are also back, and many shore birds like killdeers and avocets. I agree, it's still pretty cold in the AM. Had a nice layer of frost on the windshield this morning.

It is nice, Steve, to see the retreat of winter. I've been waiting for it since October.

I have noticed the same thing, Mathew, so I'm glad I'm not the only one. Everything, except the cabbage and broccoli which were started inside, is taking it's sweet time getting going. Peas are only an inch or two high, sown at the end of March, radishes sown in early April just barely have true leaves, same with beets, turnips, and arugula. The lettuce doesn't seem to have grown an inch since transplanting last month, either. If they don't hurry up, some stuff is just going to have to move out to make room for the summer stuff like Tomatoes.

I heard a hummingbird on May 4 but I haven't seen or heard any others. I usually start getting goldfinches and haven't seen any of those. Other than that, it's just the regular old yard birds here.

Last year I couldn't plant anything until June because the soil was so wet and saturated from our soggy, soggy May. I haven't planted of my vegetables yet this year, either but will be doing so this weekend so I won't be quite as badly behind. It sounds as if those of us that actually planted cool season crops when they should have, however, don't have much of a head start after all since the cold and wet has made everything slow its growth down so maybe my tardiness won't be quite the detriment I thought it would be.

Do you think these cold wet springs are going to be our "new normal?" I know this is something no one can actually answer at this point as climate change has only been going on for a decade or so, but just wondering if we need to change the expectations we have developed from years of experience with growing in our gardens. Just when we thought we finally had a handle on Rocky Mountain weather!

Holly

I have several hummingbirds now but that's not unusual--we typically have the first ones by the 2nd week in May. I put out feeders every year as soon as I hear the first one. We have a HUGE pine off the back deck that seems to be a favorite nesting spot. They worry me every year because there's ALWAYS at least one more really cold spell after they arrive but I've never found a dead one afterwards, could have been eaten by a scavenger, I guess--I'm telling myself they all survived. Other than the hummingbirds I haven't seen any other birds that don't overwinter here yet.

Do you all feel that the weather in the spring has really changed that much? I've been back in CO for 20 years now and I don't remember very many springs that I haven't been frustrated by broken limbs on trees because of late heavy snows or had to rush and turn off sprinklers for a few nights because of below freezing temps....We've certainly had a few drought years thrown in there but for the most part it feels pretty normal to me, just with more rain the last few years which is a good thing with our pricy water bills....

Early June isn't all the far behind, Holly. My notes show that I have never planted my warm season transplants (like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) until about May 20th. Direct seeded warm crops like beans, cucumbers, and squash I don't plant until June myself. Rain and thunderstorms predicted until at least Tuesday, I would wait. If you are direct seeding, they will probably take longer to germinate and you wont feel like you've gained anything anyways.

The only reason I have anything in my garden right now is because this year I really went heavy on the cool season stuff, the lettuce, cabbage-type, and root veggies, things like that. If this cold weather keeps up, I'll be glad I did haha.

As far as the climate stuff, yeah I agree with Liz, this is pretty typical weather. Don't forget that we just broke out of a solid 10+ years of a drought cycle which made us all used to a warmer, drier pattern. So now that the cycle has turned, we must readjust to the cooler, wetter weather until the cycle turns yet again back to the hot and dry. So I guess, yes, we could say that this is our new "normal" at least for now. This could last a few years, or much longer, or much shorter, there is really no way to tell.

Thanks to our geography (high altitude, widely varying topography, and distance from any significant bodies of water) there is really no such thing as getting a handle on Rocky Mountain weather, lol. As soon as you think you've got it, it will change again. The cyclical pattern and extreme variation from week to week, and year to year is the normal climate pattern of the High Plains and Rocky Mountains. Yeah, Eastern gardeners have a more predictable and regular climate to work with while weather is the major limiting factor for our Western gardens. However, we don't generally have the same level of pest and disease issues that they do. There's a trade off for everything ;).

There you go, Zach -- realizing the balance of things. There may be a trend but we live, month to month, day by day.

The warmth of recent winters here is surprising. What used to be a very rare occurrence, the absence or near-absence of below zero weather, has characterized our recent winters. The record June heat last year may be repeated in 2016. Well, I could never get used to a typical, miserable June in all the time I have lived here.

What a good melon year, it was in 2015! If I had a mono-crop garden, I doubt if I would have picked the right crop, however.

People can bring their resources to bear, adjust and adapt. We can't wrest land from the Indian, anymore. Now that the Aryan Nation has had its comeuppance, maybe I can migrate back to a higher elevation ... oh, the challenge of it all!

Steve

Ugh, forgot about the drought cycle we have been in, lol - you are of course correct, the "new normal" is actually a return to the old normal. I still think last year's extremely wet May was a bit unusual. I looked at some notes I had written last year; on May 23rd I wrote that that it had rained for 21 days thus far that month. I know it had been at least 15-20 years since I had last had standing water in my back yard; I pumped water out of my yard last year throughout May and on into June. Thus far this year I have only had to get my pump and hoses out for one two day session, so this May is much better as far as that is concerned, at least thus far.

I did get some planting done this weekend (peas and potatoes) but mostly just worked on getting some new areas ready to plant - trying Florida Weave as the "staking" method for my tomatoes for the first time this year so had to dig up a 20 foot row for them - plus repaired one of my raised beds where the sides were bowing out, etc. It was colder than I like for working outside - though I actually got to see the sun for about 10 minutes yesterday - but the rain held off and I actually got quite a bit accomplished.

Two more days of overcast and cold wet weather to get through and we should have some nice warm days to look forward to; 80°F temps. are being predicted for the weekend. Too early to predict anything in Colorado but maybe we really will have a nice weekend and thus can complain about it being too hot for gardening instead of whining about the cold. :-p

Holly

Very cool that you have such lovely birds visiting your yard, Zach. The most "exotic" birds I seem to get here are Chickadees and the occasional Junco (passing through on their migration,) but I have lots of house finches and house sparrows! :-p I have seen a Scarlet Tanager in Colorado, can't remember where except that it wasn't here in Westminster. And though I have never seen them here - yet - there are reported sightings of the Northern Cardinal here in Colorado, perhaps even enough sightings to say the bird is a common rare sighting, lol, if that isn't too much of a contradiction in terms.

Holly

I saw Bullock's orioles today at work... I bought an oriole feeder this year, MAYBE we will get some at the house, but I think they are more common on the plains.

100 years ago, bluejays were confined to the forests of the East (I think I've told this story before lol). It stands to reason that a century from now, they will be saying the same thing about cardinals...