Colorado Seen 2/2013
SLOAN’S LAKE
PELICANS
ALSO: RUGBY SEVENS
Put Colorado on your wall
From the Editor 2013 was a - complicated - year. We finally achieved an interface that works with mobile devices - but our desktop computer interface has suffered a bit as we adjust to the new technology. We produced more multimedia/video reports - but the magazine itself got a little behind in the meantime. Moving into 2014, we hope to improve our game with more magazines and more multimedia at the same time, while working to constantly improve out story-telling. This issue’s stories on a couple of unexpected visitors in Denver - rugby football and white pelicans - shows the direction we want to go. We look forward to serving up more (emphasis on more) of the same in 2014. Happy New Year!
Colorado Seen
An internet image magazine
Prints of pictures appearing in ColoradoSeen are available for purchase. Just click this ad.
Editor & Publisher Andrew Piper We welcome comments and letters. Submit them to: coloradoseen@comcast.net To submit work or story ideas for consideration, send an e-mail to: coloradoseen@comcast.net If you would like to advertise in ColoradoSeen, send an e-mail to coloradoseen@comcast.net for information on rates and interactive links. Copyright © 2013 ColoradoSeen
On the cover: While they appear to stand on water, these pelicans on Denver’s Sloan’s Lake are actually standing on the submerged pilings of an old pier, as revealed by the swirling turbulence around their feet. (Story begins on page 22.)
If you like what you’ve Seen here
You can be a part of it. Just click this page to make a supporting donation to Colorado Seen
LUCKY SEVENS
Rugby football is making its presence felt in Denver, with area municipalities fielding seven-man recreational teams
As in American football, a coin toss determines who will kick and who will receive to start a rugby game in southeast Denver’s Jacobs Park.
Going for the throats. A Denver Highlanders ball carrier fends off a tackle attempt by a Denver Harlequins player.
TEXT & Photos by Andy Piper
“A
With a little boost from their teammates, rugby players representing Littleton (red jerseys) and College Inn (blue stripes) strain to reach a ball being thrown in from the sidelines. 6
hooker! We need a hooker!” The cry rings out over the rugby fields of southeast Denver’s Frances Weisbart Jacobs Park. Is this a demand for some post-game (or on-field) entertainment? Rugby players, after all, do have a certain reputationto uphold. No. It just means the match is short one player. In rugby, the “hooker” is the keystone of the scrum, a tarantula-like faceoff between two walls of human flesh to put the ball back in play. The hooker is the man in the middle; head down, linked shoulder to shoulder
A Littleton player makes a maximum-effort run for the goal.
What it’s all about. A Littleton player scores a ‘try’ behind the opposition’s goal line.
with his teammates, attempting to kick the ball backwards so that a fellow player can grab it and run.
T
his is rugby sevens football in Denver — a recreational version of the sport with seven-man teams instead of the usual 15. Throughout the summer, teams from Denver and its suburbs — Littleton and Glendale among others — vye in brisk matches of 15 minutes (two halves of 7 minutes each, with a 1-minute break in between). Often three matches, along with practice and set-up time, can be squeezed into a summer evening between 6 p.m. and sunset. The players include both nativeborn Americans attracted to the game — but also a wide variety of expatriates, from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. n
From top: an injured player gets a tape-up from a teammate. The tools of the referees trade: yellow card, red card, pencil, whistle. And a rugby ball.
9
Someone’s watching! A referee, right, eyeballs the play as a spiderlike scrum prepares to receive the ball from the scrum-half — the player at left.
12
A referee (green jersey) ducks out of the path of a flying pass from a Littleton player (in red) as two College Inn players (blue stripes) fail to make their tackles. 13
A College Inn player snags a wild pass among teammates, as a lone Littleton player (in red) arrows in hopes of breaking up the play. 15
Denver Harlequins players recover from a brief but bruising match in Jacobs Park. With 16
matches lasting 15 minutes, several are played each summer Wednesday evening. 17
Strong players count in rugby — but so do strong jerseys. A ball-carrier for the Glendale Raptors breaks away from pursuers.
A gentlemanly handshake line is the traditional close to every rugby match. n
PELICANS briefly. . .
T
Andy Dufford’s sculpture Lake Totem, on the north shore of Denver’s Sloan’s Lake, commemorates the annual visit of American White Pelicans to this landlocked city. 22
TEXT & Photos by Andy Piper
he pelicans came back to Denver’s Sloan’s Lake in 2013, just as they have for over a decade now. They are an exotic addition to this landlocked city, a thousand miles from any ocean coastline. And every year there are a few more. As always, they staked out a nesting place on the lake’s sole island, and a sunning place on the submerged pilings of an old pier on the south shore. Who knows what instinct first drove them to land here on their journey North, instead of continuing on to the much larger traditional nesting areas in Canada? But land here they did, and now they share the lake with summer water skiers and speedboats, dining on the stock of fish and crayfish, and taking the evening light. Herewith, a few minutes in their company. n
S
The pelican tribe shares Sloan’s Lake with water skiers and other recreational users. They like to sun themselves on the submerged pilings of an old pier.
With full flaps and landing gear down, a pelican slides onto the surface of Sloan’s Lake.
FULL HOUSE: As the Sloan’s Lake pelican population grows each year, there are now more birds than pilings in their preferred sunning spot, opposite, atop a submerged pier, leading to territorial spats. Above, a black cormorant fends off a pelican, while below, a youngster prods an adult bird off her roost with its beak.
27
Not able to find an open piling to perch on, this youngster simply perches on the back 28
of another pelican. It shows off its 8-foot wingspan as it struggles for balance. 29
A pelican sweeps up dinner from the waters of Sloan’s Lake.
A Broncos fan pauses to snap a picture of the pelicans roost from a lakeside path. n