Boulder Backyard has visitors of all types. The incoming winter brings a party of animals to the back yard. Keeping water, food, and shelter in the back yard makes for a welcoming animal environment for these local fauna.

Boulder Backyard: Fattening For Winter

Do I have a favorite in our Boulder Backyard? Definitely. ALL of them! Whether it is a blue jay in a flock of starlings or a pair of squirrels, it makes a better show than much of what I find on TV.

Cotton Tails are ubiquitous. They are everywhere!   pic Lenny Lensworth Frieling

The Famous Boulder Beakless Flicker                        pic Lenny Lensworth Frieling

While Not An Unusual Beast, The Squirrel Is Hysterical!  pic Lenny Lensworth Frieling

As winter approaches, animals like squirrels, flickers, and rabbits shift into survival mode, using distinct strategies to ensure they’re prepared for the colder months ahead.

Squirrels

are perhaps the most common and amusing winter-preparers. They are known for their relentless gathering and burying of nuts, seeds, and acorns. This caching behavior—often called scatter hoarding—helps them create food reserves to draw from when food is scarce. Squirrels have an uncanny ability to remember the locations of many of their buried treasures, although some of these caches are inevitably forgotten, contributing to forest regeneration.

Western Flickers

a type of woodpecker, have a different approach. As autumn deepens, they consume more insects, fruits, and seeds to build up fat reserves. In winter, as insects become harder to find, they adapt by eating more berries and seeds. They can also be found frequenting backyard feeders, where they’re particularly fond of suet. We see them foraging for bugs in tree bark quite often.

Rabbits

prepare for winter in more subtle ways, as they don’t cache food like squirrels or store fat reserves to the same extent as flickers. Instead, rabbits rely on their natural habitat to provide enough sustenance. They’ll spend autumn foraging on nutrient-dense foods like grasses, clover, and even tree bark. As winter hits, rabbits often shift to eating twigs, buds, and any green vegetation they can find under the snow. Their burrows provide a relatively warm refuge where they can wait out particularly harsh weather, conserving energy by limiting their activity.

Each of these animals has evolved its own techniques to navigate the scarcity of winter. Their adaptations highlight the unique strategies found in nature to thrive, even when conditions seem most challenging.

Lenny Lensworth Frieling

Shared Knowledge Is Power!

Leonard Frieling Pen Of Justice

• Multi-published and syndicated blogger and author.
• University lectures at University. of Colorado, Boulder, Denver University Law School, Univ. of New Mexico, Las Vegas NM, and many other schools at all levels. Numerous lectures for the NORML Legal Committee
• Former Judge
• Media work, including episodes of Fox’s Power of Attorney, well in excess of many hundreds media interviews, appearances, articles, and podcasts, including co-hosting Time For Hemp for two years.
• Life Member, NORML Legal Committee, Distinguished Counsel Circle.
• Photographer of the Year, AboutBoulder 2023
• First Chair and Originator of the Colorado Bar Association’s Cannabis Law Committee, a National first.
• Previous Chair, Boulder Criminal Defense Bar (8 years)
• Twice chair Executive Counsel, Colorado Bar Association Criminal Law Section
• Life Member, Colorado Criminal Defense Bar
• Board Member Emeritus, Colorado NORML, and prior chair during legalization, as well as pre and post legalization
• Chair, Colorado NORML, 7 years including during the successful effort to legalize recreational pot in Colorado
• Senior Counsel Emeritus to the Boulder Law firm Dolan + Zimmerman LLP : (720)-610-0951
• Board member, Author, and Editor for Criminal Law Articles for the Colorado Lawyer, primary publication of the Colorado Bar Assoc. 7 Years, in addition to having 2 Colorado Lawyer cover photos, and numerous articles for the Colorado Lawyer monthly publication.
• http://www.Lfrieling.com