The outing began with a tedious drive through brain-damaging traffic from Loveland to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside Commerce City. Arriving early afternoon on a hot August day did not promise much wildlife viewing.

This refuge is now famous for maintaining wild free-living populations of black-footed ferrets and a herd of bison. The ferrets are decidedly nocturnal so not really findable on a hot afternoon. The bison should have been obvious considering their size, but only one presented itself at a distance as did just three mule deer.

Western kingbirds and mourning doves were common along the wildlife viewing drive.

A couple barn swallows and a red-tailed hawk added a bit of diversity. But the black-tailed steppe-squirrels that most people know by the biologic

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