Did You Ever Wonder?

Hummingbird numbers take a dip

lnavarro — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:32:44 +0000

I have noticed a drastic reduction in the quantity of hummingbirds compared to last summer. I am wondering if others are experiencing the same hummingbird drought. Is there a reason for the bird’s absence?
Mike Casey
The folks at Starsmore Discovery Center in North Cheyenne Cañon Park, site of the annual hummingbird festival, said they, too, have noticed a decrease in hummingbirds over the past two years. They’ve also had fewer flowers blooming in the area and they bloomed later than usual. Some of the broad-tail hummingbirds had been spotted at Starsmore in April, but snow and drought apparently delayed the blooming of the flowers in that area until May, so the hummers might have moved along to other feeding areas.
The Starsmore staff doesn’t do a hummingbird count but said they particularly noticed the lack of hummingbirds when staff and volunteers weren’t being dive bombed by the tiny whirs patrolling their eight to 10 feeders at the center.
The broad-tails seen here use the flyway through Southern California, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. Consequently, the wildfires might also have been a problem for them as they flew north from their winters in Mexico and Central America.
Arriving this month were the Rufous hummingbirds, which came down the Rocky Mountain flyway from Canada, the Yukon, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana, where they breed. They’ll be heading to Mexico and Central America.
Audubon Society bird counters have reported a longterm decline in the numbers of all hummingbirds starting as far back as 1966. Listed as possible reasons are habitat loss, pesticides, weather changes and, in the Mexican wintering range, a susceptibility to natural disasters, diseases and changes in land use.
Starsmore staff recommended that area hummingbird fans continue to keep their feeders out and filled with fresh sugar water, just as if there were many hummingbirds coming by. Hummers remember their favorite areas and will return, but won’t if there’s not a reason to. Hummingbirds are also picky and won’t be back if the sugar water isn’t fresh.
The hummingbird feeders at Starsmore Center are brought in at night because of bears in the area who are looking for a sweet snack.

BLOG COMMENT: “I am a full time RVer and have heard and read other stories around the country about a later spring, more snow on the western slope, cooler temperatures this summer in Alaska. Lake Superior surface temperatures 10 degrees below normal, colony collapse disorder in Bee’s. A sunspot cycle that remains very low with little or no activity. I started to wonder what gives. So I did some research having a background in climatology and a masters degree in geography.

Our planet started a slight cooling trend after a warm peak in 1998, in the last two years it has taken a greater downtrend in world wide average temperatures. The popular media and others in politics say it isn’t so, but the numbers do not lie.

This cooling trend may explain the late blooming flowers and fewer hummingbirds along the Front Range.

- Robert Shipton

BLOG COMMENT” I enjoyed your article on the hummingbirds. I guess I didn’t notice because about 3 or 4 years ago I became aware of the decrease in House Finches, Sparrows and other small birds at my feeders. I blamed it on the drought.

Another unusual occurrence was the appearance of Blue Jays about 6 years ago. I hadn’t seen a Blue Jay since I lived in Nebraska 50 years ago. I welcomed the Blue Jays (in addition to Blackbirds and squirrels of course.)

- Charlotte Thomas

This Penrose House is at Fort Carson

lnavarro — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:14:44 +0000

We have been invited to a reception at Penrose House. However, this Penrose House isn’t the one near The Broadmoor hotel; it’s at Fort Carson. Did Spencer Penrose have a connection to the Army?
- Brad and Amy
• Penrose House near The Broadmoor hotel had been the home of Spencer and Julie Penrose. It was built in 1910 and purchased by the couple in 1916. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, through El Pomar Foundation, it’s the elegant site of gatherings and events for nonprofit groups.
The Penrose House at Turkey Creek Ranch on Fort Carson was built in 1912 as Spencer Penrose’s weekend getaway.
The land had been a ranch since the 1880s, but Penrose, who made his money through real estate including The Broadmoor and mining, found it the perfect spot for his collection of exotic animals. He had an elk called Prince Albert, bears, coyotes, deer and unusual sheep in addition to purebred livestock.
With the exception of the livestock, his animals were the start of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 1926.
Friends were often invited to the ranch, where Penrose had an ice rink, swimming pool, orchards, guest house, and a still manned by an expert from Kentucky.
After Penrose died in 1939, the ranch was sold off in 1944 and had different owners until the U.S. Army purchased it during an expansion of Fort Carson in the mid-1960s. The ranch has housed a cavalry detachment, was used by the post’s color guard and wildlife and range control officers, became a retreat center for the Fort Carson Chaplain’s Office and is now a recreation area for military families with plenty of space for horseback trail rides. Penrose House is once again the site of social gatherings, now including weddings and reunions.

Cinemark or Tinseltown. Which is the oldtimer?

lnavarro — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:28:40 +0000

I have a bet going about which theater is older, Cinemark 16 or Tinseltown. How old is each? 

- J. Blanchard

Tinseltown opened in March 1998; Cinemark 16 and Cinemark IMAX opened in December 2000. Did you win?

Camping a special Hill Climb event on Pikes Peak

lnavarro — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:26:22 +0000

Coming up on July 20, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will take place again. I keep hearing that this is the only time of the year when camping is allowed on Pikes Peak. Isn’t Pikes Peak in Pike National Forest? I thought camping was always allowed on National Forest land.

-  Robert Veghte

Although Pikes Peak is in Pike National Forest, the City of Colorado Springs has the contract to administer Pikes Peak Highway. Hearty backpackers can hike up Barr Trail to camp on the mountain, but it’s not open to those using the highway, which is closed at night. City spokeswoman Carrie McCausland learned from acting Pikes Peak Highway manager Jack Glavan that the city had examined the possibility of opening the peak to camping in the 1990s, but it was not considered economically feasible. “It’s not that it couldn’t be done; it’s more than just people pitching a tent,” McCausland said. The city would have to submit a proposal to the Forest Service, there would be a study, and, if the project went forward, they would have to add potable water, bathroom facilities, round-the-clock staff and the gate to the highway would have to be manned 24/7, she said. “The road isn’t set up for nighttime travel, and that would have to be part of the equation: making it safe for regular nighttime travel,” she said. “The corridor is 150 feet from the highway, and people can camp outside that corridor, although their cars can’t be there overnight,” she said. Now, about that one night of camping: permits are on sale for July 19, the night before the International Hill Climb. It’s $100 per vehicle and the campgrounds open at noon. The three areas are Glen Cove, Ski Area and Halfway Picnic Ground Campgrounds. For more details, go to ppihc.com

Bicycle in the sky disappeared with the business

lnavarro — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:53:58 +0000

    Can you find out whatever happened to the bicycle that always sat atop the structure to the south of the Colorado Avenue bridge? We miss seeing it every time we are in that area.
    - Phyllis Williams
    Brian’s Bicycle Repair, which was below the elevated bicycle high in the sky at 110 S. Sierra Madre St., is closed .
    The Gazette’s Out There section reported in May that Brian Gravestock, who had repaired high-end bikes, sold off most of his vintage bike parts.
    The building has new owners and Gravestock told The Gazette it is believed it will be torn down as part of the downtown urban renewal.
    In an earlier story Gravestock told The Gazette that he and a friend, Tom Augerinos, had used a rope to haul the bike high into the air, where it became a familiar eye catcher. He said it was a subtle ad for his bike shop and caused a lot of conversation. The bike also served as a weather vane. The shop was in an old grain mill, originally the 1880s Seldom Ridge Grain Co.

Which Mr. Holmes? And who was Mr. Howbert?

lnavarro — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:48:51 +0000

I attended Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior High (now Holmes Middle School) from 1979 to 1982 and I was wondering: Whom was it named for? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., the poet and physician, or Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the Supreme Court justice? I know it sounds strange that I could attend that school and not know who it was named for. I attended Irving Howbert elementary for seven years and came out of it without a clue who he was. Shouldn’t these schools at least teach their students whom the school is named for?

- Steve Stuart
We checked with School District 11 and the school was named for Dr. Holmes, the poet and physician.
We passed along your idea about teaching the students at the schools about those the schools are named for. Some of them, like Irving Howbert, have fascinating local histories.

Bill Brown passed along some interesting Howbert history he found at the Old Colorado City Historical Society. Irving Howbert was 14 when he and his father came to Colorado City from the mining camps in South Park and the family moved to Colorado City in 1861.
He helped his father farm and closely observed the Indians “from the friendly Utes to the hostile Arapahoe.” He used what he learned in his book ,“Indians of the Pikes Peak Region,” published in 1914.
According to the society’s history, “after there were many Indian troubles — the Hungate Massacre being one — the Territorial Governor Evans got authority to form the 3d Colorado Cavalry Regiment and in November (1864), with 18 other men from Colorado City, including Anthony Bott Irving Howbert, at 18 years old, — as Company G — marched south to near Fort Wise, encamped, were eventually equipped, and rode under Col. Chivington in the infamous Sand Creek massacre against hundreds of Indians.
As a corporal at Sand Creek, Irving Howbert got his taste of battle. In his “Memories of a Lifetime in the Pikes Peak Region,” published in 1925, he stoutly defends Chivington and refuses to call the attack on the hostile Indians a ‘massacre.’”
In 1869, Howbert became the first El Paso County Clerk and Recorder and helped Gen. William Jackson Palmer as he founded Colorado Springs in 1871. The society’s history says, “By 1872 the County Seat became Colorado Springs, Irving Howbert moved there, and for the rest of his life was, after Palmer, the most accomplished and influential man in the Pikes Peak region.
He died in 1934.

Valley Hi ditch scheduled for cleaning

lnavarro — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:45:42 +0000

I am wondering who is in charge of cleaning out the drainage ditch that runs through Valley Hi golf course? For years it has been overgrown with weeds and it looks terrible. I see it every time we drive on Chelton between Fountain and Airport.
— Sharon Lucy
Dal Lockwood, golf manager at Valley Hi, said there are a number of ditches running through Valley Hi but the one you are seeing from Chelton should be cleaned up by this fall by those responsible for the stormwater enterprise. He said that with the creation of the stormwater enterprise there was a question about who was responsible for cleaning up the ditch. “We pay our stormwater fees, too,” just like residential customers, Lockwood said. Now that it’s resolved, the ditch will be cleaned.

Hmmmm, there’s an answer to downtown humming

lnavarro — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:23:32 +0000

There is a loud hum coming from one of the downtown buildings. It seems loudest around Kiowa and Weber or Nevada. I tend to be down there while the majority of revelers aren’t, so it seems really loud to me.

— Constance

The city’s code enforcement officer, Ken Lewis, had a pretty good idea what was humming and spoke with city marshals who work in that area. They agreed it is coming from the microwave towers atop the US West building, corner of Pikes Peak Avenue and Weber Street. He said it can be heard especially well when it is wet or humid outside.

A live tree and a flag signal a building’s ‘topping off’

lnavarro — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:13:18 +0000

I’m wondering about a new building under construction on the north side of Powers between Union and Briargate Boulevard. At this point there is only a steel framework. But, alas, there is something I have never before seen at the top of a several story structure under construction. An American flag is waving proudly next to what appears to be a 5’ tall living tree coming up from the framework! Can you find out what that’s all about?

‑ Karen

This was a ceremonial “topping off” of the steel framework for the new office condominium complex in Powers Office Park near the two new hospitals. It’s part of a long tradition. When the final piece of steel is ready to be swung into place on the highest point of a high-rise structure, steelworkers celebrate. Many times they attach a flag and a small pine tree to the beam and all the steelworkers and others who worked on the building autograph the steel before it is placed. Why a tree? It’s to celebrate the milestone and most often denotes that the construction reached skyward without any serious injuries or loss of life. It salutes growth. It’s also a bit of a lucky charm, wishing good things on those who will live or work inside the building. The ceremony dates well before skyscrapers and encyclopedias report references as early as 700 A.D., in Scandinavia where newly constructed structures were topped off with grain for Odin’s horse. Odin, the deity from Norse mythology, apparently would be so pleased with this gift for his steed he would assure only good things for those who would be the building’s inhabitants.

Developers would have to agree on Conrad, the street

lnavarro — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:21:49 +0000

I was wondering how I would get a street named after myself. I know this is done in Cedar Heights and noticed this on the south side by Drennan Road.
- Conrad J. Czajkowski
You’ll have to make friends with or be a family member of a local developer. Then you’ll have to convince that developer to name a street after you. An area’s developers choose the street names and work it out with either the city or county to ensure the names don’t duplicate or sound like street names already in use. There are also steps taken to ensure that street names are spelled correctly and wouldn’t be difficult for emergency responders to find. Good luck.