THIS MONTH IN HISTORY 

April 27, 2000
Record HIGH temperature of 77 degrees F

April 29, 1953
Record low temperature of –4 degrees F

March’s Average Temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit)

Max. 56.1 F
Min. 25.9 F
Mean 40.9 F

Source: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliGCStT.pl?coflew

ANIMAL HAPPENINGS 

Many birds are returning from their wintering grounds further south, including yellow-rumped, Virginia’s, orange-crowned, MacGillivray’s, Wilson’s and yellow warblers, common yellowthroats and yellow breasted chats. Hummingbirds will also soon be making their appearance. Hawks and owls are setting up nests. Many of these birds depend upon the cottonwood/willow forests along our rivers.

Raccoons are becoming active. Babies are born in April or May, and have eyes closed for an additional 20 days. They won’t leave the den until late June or early July. Skunks have a similar pattern.

Prairie dog pups, born in early April, will begin to venture out of their dens toward the end of April or early May, staying close to the entrance to avoid becoming a tasty snack for eagles, hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes and badgers.

PLANT HAPPENINGS

Wild

Watch for early wildflowers blooming including Pasque flowers and various species of vetch and mustard.

Cottonwood, willow and aspen trees (all in the Salix family) are beginning to flower and leaf out. Three kinds of native cottonwoods are found in southwest Colorado. Narrow-leaved (Populus angustifolia), Rio Grand or Plains (Populus deltoides ssp. wislizenii) and Lanceleaf (Populus acuminata), which is thought to be a fertile hybrid of the previous two.

Garden

Early April is the time to start tomatoes, peppers and eggplant seeds indoors, for planting outside in early June.

Late April is a good time to plant some of your cold tolerant crops such as lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, peas, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and beets.

Look for lots of perennial herbs to reemerge this month, including chives, lovage, tarragon, mints, savory and oregano.

ASTRONOMICAL HAPPENINGS 

Late April is a great time to view Jupiter on the eastern horizon in the early evening. Jupiter is the forth brightest object in our sky, after the sun, moon, and Venus (which isn’t visible this month).

Jupiter's four major moons can often be seen even in a pair of binoculars, extending in a nearly straight line either side of the planet. The outermost one, Callisto, can sometimes be glimpsed with the naked eye, especially if you look at twilight, before the light from the planet itself becomes too dazzling.

Saturn and Mars can also be seen in the evening sky, Saturn towards the west, and Mars almost directly overhead.

Look for the Lyrid Meteor shower in the east to north east from April 16th to April 25th, with the height on April 22nd. (Look in the “Northern Cross” constellation and the Lyra constellation which contains the bright star Vega.) The shower should become visible at about 9:00 pm each evening, but is most noticeable in the early morning hours. Expect about 10-20 meteor’s per hour.

Daylight savings time begins April 2nd. Add one hour (spring forward, fall back) to your clocks.