Category Archives: Spring

Wonders of April: Mars and Mexican Wolves

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Snow is in the forecast this weekend for New Mexico, but the lilac bushes are full of buds and the temperature reached seventy degrees earlier this week.  Summer is inching closer each day.

In the meantime, April offers a great view of Mars and a new wolf pack in the Apache National Forest.

Earth and Mars to Scale Photo Credit: Bluedharma via Compfight cc

Earth and Mars to Scale
Photo Credit: Bluedharma via Compfight cc

On April 8th, last Tuesday, the sun and earth and Mars lined up.  The orbit of Mars around the sun takes about twice as long as earth’s so this opposition of Mars only occurs  once every twenty-six months. For a few more days as the sun goes down, Mars will rise in the east and will be overhead by midnight.  In the morning as the sun comes up, Mars will be setting in the west. The red planet is easy to spot since it is the brightest object in the sky, except for the waxing moon.

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: James Zeschke via Compfight cc

In another rare occurrence, a pair of wolves was released on April 2nd in Arizona, part of the Mexican Gray wolf recovery program.  The special thing about these two wolves is that the male, M1290,  was born in the wild in 2012 and his mate, F1218,  was born in captivity.  The two were paired after the male was trapped earlier this year and have spent the breeding season together in captivity.  If all goes as planned, M1290’s experience growing up in the wild will  help them establish a territory, dig a den (if the female is pregnant), and hunt deer and elk.  When F1218 does give birth to a litter, she will  bring new, much needed, diversity to the gene pool of the wild population.  The Arizona Game and Fish Department filmed the release of the pair, now known as the Hoodoo Pack.

Dark clouds gathered over the Jemez Mountains this evening and the air cooled quickly, no view of Mars tonight.   As I watched from the kitchen window,  the storm moved closer and I thought about M1290 and F1218.  So much depends upon their ability to learn quickly how to live wild.  But tonight they are just two wolves, eyes shining, ears tuned to every sound, running through the ponderosa pines and Douglas firs of the dark, quiet forest..

For more news and information about the Mexican gray wolf recovery program check out this website.

 

Springtime in the Rockies

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Tis a month before the month of May,
And the Spring comes slowly up this way.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Spring in Colorado!!  When I found Mom’s email on Thursday morning with that subject line, I was certain the photos attached would be of her garden–tulips and daffodils and hyacinths, all in full bloom.  Instead, this . . .

Photo Credit: J. Nixon

Photo Credit: J. Nixon

Winter is slow to retreat here in the Rocky Mountains.  I live 350 miles south of Mom near the bottom of the 3000-mile long range.  On the same day I received her email I was bombarded with a flurry of snow pellets when I stopped, on my way to the mailbox, to admire a forsythia shrub bristling with yellow flowers.

Spring is making inroads each day; a black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) has been hanging out at the bird bath in my backyard. I’ve scanned the still-bare trees looking for a pile of sticks that could mean she has nested nearby, but have yet to find a sign.  Inside, the Siamese cat sits near the fireplace, head cocked, listening.  I strain my ears to hear what she hears and wonder if the birds have built a nest near the chimney.

By the time I talked to Mom late Thursday afternoon, most of the snow had melted and she said the crabapple tree in her photo was covered with buds and would soon be full of pink flowers..

 

 

Bluestem Pack Update – Pups Have New Names

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Artwork by Eleanor W., 1st Grade

Artwork by Eleanor W., 1st Grade

On Friday Lobos of the Southwest announced the winners of their second annual wolf pup naming contest. Of the nine pups named, six were born to the Bluestem Pack,

Back in 1997 the Bluestem Pack got its start when a female wolf pup was born at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.  F521 was the pup’s official studbook number, but zookeepers called her Estrella, which means Star in Spanish.

She was part of the very first litter born in the zoo’s new habitat, Wolf Woods, built as part of the Mexican gray wolf recovery program.

In 2002 Estrella, her mate, and seven of their pups from two different litters were released into the White Mountains of Arizona.  Twelve years later the pack still runs, hunts, and in most years has a new litter of pups.  Estrella was killed illegally in 2010, but by then one of her daughters, F1042, had become the alpha female of the pack.  F1042’s six pups born in 2013 are Estrella’s grandpups.

The kids who submitted names for the wolf pups made drawings, wrote essays, and told the judges why their names should be selected.  To see all of the results check out this story.

The Bluestem pups have all been captured, outfitted with radio collars, and assigned studbook numbers.  And now they have new names:

Shadow (m1330) – named by Renea S. in the 2nd grade.

Niku (m1331) – means victory in Finnish, named by Hayley K. in the 5th grade.

Unique (f1332) –  named by Danielle H. in the 2nd grade.

Verde (f1333) –  means green in Spanish, named by Eleanor W. in the 1st grade (see above picture).

Esperanza (f1339)  – means hope in Spanish, named by Maddie D., Emily P., and Annabelle B. all in the 6th grade.

Essay by Lillian R.-6th Grade

Essay by Lillian R.-6th Grade

Zia (f1340) – named by Lillian R.in the 6th grade (see her essay to the right),

State Flag of New Mexico

State Flag of New Mexico

As of March 10th, the telemetry flight location report indicated that all of the Bluestem pups were still traveling together with their parents.  Soon they will be yearlings and may start to explore on their own or with wolves from other packs.

I’ll be keeping an eye on them and crossing my fingers that there is a new litter of pups later this spring.

Kids and Wolves

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Give a classroom full of kids paper and crayons and tell them about the endangered Mexican gray wolves  and prepare to be amazed by what they come up with.  My essay in yesterday’s  Santa Fe New Mexican featured two of the pups born to the Bluestem Pack in 2012 that were named in last year’s Lobos of the Southwest contest.

Winners in this year’s contest will be announced later this week.

 

Spring Arrived on Thursday Morning

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"Norman" by I. Major 1996

“Norman” by I. Major 1996

My fingers froze above the computer keyboard trying to find a way to write about the new season without resorting to baby ducks and daffodils.  All the while, these lines were running through my mind:

Up the airy mountain,
 Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
 For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
 Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
 And white owl’s feather!

I memorized William Allingham’s poem, The Fairies,  in Mrs. Thrash’s fifth-grade class.  Somehow, the memory of reciting that poem in front of my fellow fifth-graders fused with another one: bugging Mom to break or to, at least, bend her ironclad rule of no bare feet outside before Memorial Day.  Suddenly, I was eleven-years-old again and it was spring.  I struggled to focus on long-division problems while daydreaming about summer: endless hours of exploring the neighborhood on my bike, reading Trixie Belden mysteries, and looking over Dad’s shoulder as he mapped out our annual camping trip.

Things aren’t much different now.  I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to keep my attention on a pile of receipts that need to be tamed and tabulated.  When my eyes are about to go crossed from looking at the numbers, I take a break to check out the National Park Service’s  website, planning a  late summer trip to the Grand Canyon.

Outside, the wind blows and pollen fills the air.  It’s not very warm yet, but last week on Grant Street I saw a row of daffodils, heads nodding in the breeze–a sure sign that  spring is here.