The focus in the Fort Collins area since late summer 2008 has been on Mountain Pine Beetle "oddities" to the extent that I felt it was time for a day outside city limits to check out the "norms".  By "oddities" I mean odd hosts (predominantly Scots), odd development timing (apparently early flight and attacks in July or even earlier, late flight and attacks in August/early September, advanced brood, pupal chambers being constructed in early November, early emergence of adults of unknown provenance), odd fading patterns (trees with pupating larvae under the bark that still have green foliage), odd levels of adult survival, odd beetle sources (apparently 50 miles away that got here by wind-assist), odd pitch tube appearance and flow (tubes that look like those of unsuccessful attacks (big, runny) that overtop very successfully developing beetles under the bark, etc.).  It is easy to lose perspective when all one dwells on are abnormalities.  Sort of like trying to figure out what the world is like by watching TV only. 

I am not sure if looking at a dozen or so ponderosas today constitutes a fair assessment of "normal", but here is what I found north of Red Feather Lakes on Larimer County Road 179 (Cherokee Park/Prairie Divide area):

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