Wife, dog and myself drove to Picture Canyon (Baca County) for a weekend of camping in one of our most favorite places.
Picture Canyon Bird highlights at Picture Canyon: . Western Screech-Owl calling about 300 yards south of picnic area starting at dark. . Rufous-crowned Sparrows many singing after sunrise . Ladder-backed Woodpecker . Rock Pigeons a while back there was interest in feral populations. I believe these would count as feral. . Golden Eagle putting on quite a show for us in the canyon. . American Kestrels putting on territorial and courtship displays and calling everywhere, non-stop, all day. Story line. (this is long, so skip to the complete species list at the bottom if you like) This was quite a trip with more than a few bird-related stories and one EPIC weather-related story. We arrived about 6pm in time to setup camp and enjoy a beautiful evening. No wind, stars galore and a western screech-owl calling about 300 yards down the canyon. We awoke at first light with Canyon Wrens galore serenading us; Rock Wrens singing; a nearby Say's Phoebe calling non-stop all morning; Western Meadowlarks and Northern Flickers singing/calling everywhere. I got up, got dressed and went birding and let the wife sleep in. I soon found Canyon Towhees and Rufous-crowned Sparrows singing/calling all over the hillsides. A seemingly out of place Killdeer was around for a day. The Kestrels were putting on quite a show. Many of them in every side-canyon, on the mesas up top along the canyon rims, and carving out every niche in the canyon itself. Calling and chasing each other non-stop; presumably engaged in territory and courtship activities. This went on all day. You merely had to pick your favorite seat and watch a group of them go at it non-stop. Concerning Rock Pigeons. There was a thread a while back about reporting feral (definition? == away from urban sprawl) Pigeons. I believe these might count. Concerning Ravens. Lots of them around - seemed to be mostly paired. Had myself convinced that I was seeing both Chihuahuan and Common Ravens; but only logged all of them as "Unknown Ravens" per much recent discussion on them. Does anyone have an opinion to the Ravens found down in this area? Connie joined me later in the morning and we hiked down the canyon and viewed many of the petroglyphs present. Incredible. We got back to camp around 1pm as the wind was kicking up. If the flooding was correctly termed biblical from last September, then what was about to occur next was also biblical. A river of wind coming down the canyon continued to increase in intensity until the dust limited visibility to 20 yards at times. We tried to weather this in a fairly robust mountain tent that had withstood many years of camping at treeline in Colorado, but eventually some poles on the tent snapped; and those snapped poles quickly punctured and ripped the rain-fly on the tent. Command decision - pack up and get out while the gittin' is good! The 2 hour drive up to a Holiday Inn Express in Lamar proved that the biblical dust storm was not just confined to the Picture Canyon area. It was with us all the way into Lamar. Visibility limited us to 20mph at times along Hwy 287! And only 40-45mph during the best times. Everything we have is covered in a layer of this brown dust. Truly incredible storm of very strong intensity. We awoke the next morning to beautiful weather and stopped by Rocky Ford SWA for a very nice hike. Again, the kestrels, meadowlarks, and flickers were putting on shows. This time joined by groups of Blue Jays in seemingly every cottonwood grove to be found. We also had a singing Bewick's Wren. Jeff J Jones ( <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]) Teller County - 8500' - Montane Woodlands Complete Species List Species: 40 - Subspecies: 1 - Forms: 42 Total Records: 45 COLORADO - 12 Northern Harrier Ferruginous Hawk Rough-legged Hawk Eurasian Collared-Dove Mourning Dove Great Horned Owl American Crow Horned Lark Mountain Bluebird European Starling Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle LAKE HASTY - 4 Canada Goose American Wigeon Hooded Merganser Great Blue Heron PICTURE CANYON - 18 Golden Eagle Killdeer Rock Pigeon Western Screech-Owl Ladder-backed Woodpecker Northern Flicker American Kestrel Say's Phoebe Unknown Raven Rock Wren Canyon Wren Townsend's Solitaire Rufous-crowned Sparrow Canyon Towhee American Tree Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) hyemalis Western Meadowlark ROCKY FORD SWA - 9 Mallard Red-tailed Hawk (1 perfect adult Harlan's Hawk) Northern Flicker American Kestrel Blue Jay Bewick's Wren American Robin White-crowned Sparrow Western Meadowlark TELLER COUNTY, CO - 2 Common Raven House Sparrow Birder's Diary - www.BirdersDiary.com - 3/17/2014 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. 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