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June 21st is the first day of summer - the Summer Solstice. On this day, the sun rises and sets the farthest north of east. The arc the sun travels across the sky is also as high overhead as it will be all year.
Many wild flowers are blooming now, including wild rose, lupine, penstemons, paintbrushes, heart-leaved arnica, shooting star, wild geraniums, larkspur, prickly pear cactus and showy milkweed.
Elk, deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, little brown and big brown bats, marmots, and badgers are all having babies now. Black bears are mating, but because of delayed implantation, cubs won’t be born until November during hibernation.
Birds are at the height of breeding now. Watch for colorful Western Tanagers, Northern Orioles, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Yellow Warblers, all with dramatic yellow or orange plumage. Black-chinned and Broad-tailed hummingbirds are also nesting in the area. The nests are about the size of a walnut shell and usually in dense foliage.
At dusk, watch for Night Hawks eating insects and performing displays of aerial courtship, diving to produce wind “booms” through wing feathers. American Dippers are nesting along rivers and behind water falls.
If you live next to a permanent water source and grass pasture, you might begin seeing fireflies. These “flies” are actually beetles and are normally found in the eastern part of the state, but their territories are expanding into western habitats.
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