As we were poking about, I thought that our explorations of the open spaces of Westminster and Broomfield might be interesting to others. And so, blog post. Plus, it's a good excuse to take a lot of pictures. I like taking pictures.
Hyland Ponds Open Space
The City of Westminster Open Space Website describes it as a "wildlife magnet", and gives a little history about the family who farmed the space back in the day. The open space features two little reservoir ponds that were initially built as cattle wades. There's an abandoned irrigation ditch lined by cottonwoods, and trails criss-crossing all around the ponds.
But the fun part was cutting across the fence bordering the open space and exploring the prairie dog field beyond.
This clearly used to be a pasture for cattle. Complete with an old rusty feeding trough.
As you find in places like this, there were a few piles of old rubbish, now inhabited by rabbits (who were too quick for a picture.)
But most exciting to us, at least, were the two large downed trees. Both looked like they'd been taken out by wind, and both had clearly been quite majestic in life.
The first fell when its roots gave way, and lay like a great skeleton in the middle of the field.
The second, though, looked like its top had been twisted by the wind, wrenching it and breaking it down the middle while it was still standing.
Naturally, we climbed all over them both.
It was fascinating to see the different ways in which the wood had rotted, thanks to the different manners of the trees' deaths. I would have liked to see them standing. And I would have liked to see the windstorm(s?) that took them down.
There was a third dead tree, still standing, that we had to visit because from a distance it looked like the White Tree of Gondor. On our way we passed a clump of willows that exploded into sound and motion as hundreds of doves took off at our approach. I love the way doves squeak when they take off.
Then we tromped back over to the official side of the open space again, to see if there were any birds to spot. We were not disappointed. This kestrel was posing quite charmingly. Immediately after I snapped this shot, it swooped down into the grass and came back up again with a mouse in its talons. Good job, kestrel! They're like little wind-up killing machines. Love them.
One pond was completely frozen over, but the other had a clear space. Naturally, there were plenty of geese to be found, as well as a few mallards. But we also spotted a male hooded merganser, looking all proud of his two pretty ladies. He's the short one with the white head in the middle of the group of geese. The pretty ladies are the brown ones flanking the group. They kept diving under the ice, and taking so long to come back up again that I was sure they'd gotten trapped and drowned.
In all, it was a pretty good trip. I'd give it a 4/5 for interesting things, though its replay value is probably only 3/5, having already visited the trees. We'll definitely be headed back there in the spring. I bet it'll be packed to the gills with red-wing blackbirds. And we spotted a couple promising ditches to search for frogs and snakes.
We finished our adventure with a little bit of sculpture riding. Because what else are you supposed to do with a dolphin sculpture in the middle of Colorado?
The only explanation is that it must have been commissioned by an 8 year-old girl. The only thing it's missing is pink sparkles.
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