While most of the west is still enduring a record-breaking drought, here along the northern front range we have been incredibly blessed with one of the rainiest seasons in many years of recollection. It has been quite a joy to enjoy the moisture, giving us a reprieve from not only the sadly all too common summer wildfire smoke haze from ours and other states, but also the incredibly stressful hyper-vigilance and fears for local fire danger. It has also been quite nice to have the creeks and waterways so abundantly flowing at a time of year when we typically start to see the waters retreat to their autumn and winter “trickles”.
This great amount of precipitation has granted us a stunning year for wildflowers, with multiple blooms happening throughout the summer and blossoms still enduring to this day, which is a gift we are not granted often, even in moderately rainy years. Another benefit of the blooms, from those plants and fungus that do so, is a now ripening and flourishing growth of berries and edible mushrooms. The local stash spots are thick with fruits of the forest, and I am seeing many posts on social media from people exclaiming their delight at the abundance of their foraging.
It bears noting that with any wild foraging, it is best to only take what one might consume that day or the next. With so many people enjoying wild foraging these days, it is very easy to wipe out that abundance for the benefit of a human population that is not in any true need of these fruits of nature, subsequently starving wildlife of food they will likely need to help survive the upcoming seasonal shortage. Often these bountiful seasons foretell a significant winter ahead, and the animals will be far more in need of the energy provided by these fruits than we will.
This week’s image comes from an encounter with one of our neighbors not so commonly seen in this area, a cedar waxwing, eagerly enjoying some of this abundance. Waxwings are found in Colorado all year long, and we do see them here from time to time, but typically not in great numbers. Berries are this birds’ favorite meals, so much so that they are known to become intoxicated from hardily consuming fruits that are over-ripe and fermenting “on the vine”. With such an abundant season, these birds are quite in their happy place (possibly a bit too happy…) taking advantage of the bountiful crop. Likely the main reason I stumbled across the 4 of them together that I did, all enjoying these berries. It wasn’t easy getting a photo as they barely sat still, darting from deep in the choke cherry bush to a nearby aspen to consume their delicacies and preen, then back to the bushes for more. While typically camera-shy and doing their best to keep hidden, this handsome beauty was quite proud to show off its delight at the new and tasty addition to nature’s buffet as we inch our way into the annual harvest season of autumn.
Originally published in The Mountain-Ear
