The Monument Plant is monumental in size and reproductive ability. This giant that has graced Colorado mountain slopes this summer creates a huge seed bank when it flowers. The thousands of seeds found on the gorgeous seed head represent a mighty effort at survival for the green gentian know as “ big bang” reproduction or “death by exhaustion”. In this podcast I discuss the natural history and interesting facts about the Green Gentian, formally Frasera speciosa, also called the monument plant or elk weed. This giant grows in mountain meadows and can reach 9 feet tall and live as long as 60 years. At the end of its orgiastic season of flowering, the giant plants die immediately and leave thousands of seeds to carry on their genetic legacy should their “babies” be fortunate enough to survive.

It’s a drab little bird — a brown sparrow, not even five inches long, that you wouldn’t give a second glance if it happened to hop across your path.

The Florida grasshopper sparrow might be the one of the most endangered species in the continental United States. Biologists are working hard to save it — and they think they’re making progress.

But their efforts raise a persistent question: Why go to the trouble? It’s just a sparrow, after all. Sparrows are everywhere. Don’t we have enough of them as it is? And why should we care if a nondescript little bird — one that most of us will never see — slips out of existence? In this entry of Voices of the Valley Floor-a & Fauna we invite guest ornithologist to discuss the value of species including our threatened Gunnison's prairie dog.

Birds can actually have awareness of behaviors of other birds...Jays that cache a seed and realize that another jay may have seen where the seed was hidden have been shown to come back later and re-cache the seed. Listen to learn about how chickadees carefully "weigh" the sunflower seeds at your feeder...and use a cost benefit analysis scheme. There are evolutionary reasons for this. This episode of Voices of the Valley Floor-a and Fauna explores the fascinating behaviors of our winter songbirds that visit our feeders.

Photo: Black-capped Chickadee

Photo Credit: Randy Stephens