Hi all -- As a sort of last hurrah for my involvement with Denver Field Ornithologists (before I move to Washington and Alaska), I led a big day effort around the Trinidad area, Las Animas County, on Sunday. This was also the last county I needed to bird to complete my goal of birding in all sixty-four Colorado counties. I intended to do it in style!
The intrepid team was Cris Cook, Sue Summers, Susan Blansett, and myself. It was a journey of discovery big day, as we could neither pre-scout the route ourselves (too far from Denver) nor do much digital scouting (there being very few eBird reports for most of the places we visited). Colorado is such a brilliant state for following your nose off the beaten path, and birding under-reported areas in May can be incredibly fun. We had a magnificent weekend. It was as if the state was putting on a show for us. Everything was green and beautiful. There were birds everywhere. On the way down, on Saturday afternoon, we stopped at Mineral Palace Park in Pueblo, where we saw the Yellow-throated Warbler (thanks Brandon) and a Mississippi Kite. We continued on to a place described in the Harold Holt guide, Burnt Mill Road (Pueblo Co.), where we had gorgeous scenery and great birding, including Cassin's Kingbird, Lazuli Bunting, Wood Duck, Western Tanager, Wild Turkey, and Mountain Bluebird. A visit to Lake Maria (Pueblo Co.) was tough, with wind and heat shimmer, but we did see Ring-necked Duck, Clark's Grebe, and two White-face Ibis. We sped down to Walsenburg and took Ideal Canyon Road to the southwest. This is a place described on the Colorado County Birding website. You will notice a theme in this post: we are indebted to the writers of the Holt guide and the creators of the county birding website--in fact, all of those who have birded remote corners of the state, and more importantly those who have gathered that knowledge and put it in books and websites where it is available to "young Turks" like me. It is very cool to be able to draw on that body of collective knowledge and feel like we are a part of the rich birding history of this state. Anyway, the website says of Ideal Canyon Road: "Grace's Warblers were found summering here in 2003." That was fourteen years ago (!) but what the heck, we gave it a try. We found ourselves in a magnificent meadow / ponderosa forest where we had singing Plumbeous Vireos, Western Tanagers, Gray Flycatcher, both bluebirds, and sure enough, singing and eventually emerging briefly atop a ponderosa, its throat illuminated by the 7 pm sun, a Grace's Warbler. We were all set to head for the hotel after that, but at the turn onto CR 310, we noticed a small lake ahead that was not on the map. From Pueblo south there is water everywhere right now. Arroyos that look like they might be dry for five years straight have rushing muddy creeks. All water bodies are spilling over their edges. The light just got better, and the lake had Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Ring-necked Duck, Gadwall, Wilson's Phalarope, Spotted Sandpiper, and more. That's why I call this kind of trip a journey of discovery. Wild Turkeys were out in force on the drive back to the interstate. Okay, on to the BIG DAY. First stop was Purgatoire River Trail in Trinidad, where we found 30 species including Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lesser Goldfinch, several singing Yellow-breasted Chats, and a Black Phoebe and Eastern Phoebe hanging out in a small area, close together... Next we were supposed to go to CR 75 where it crosses the river, but we overshot and ended up on CR 79, a dinky road next to some cholla pastures and a ditch with some cottonwoods. What the heck. We birded it. And wouldn't you know--someone saw a male Western Tanager. Only thing was, when we got a better look, the red came all the way down on the chest, it was mottled with the yellow of the rest of the bird, and sure enough, we were looking at a SUMMER TANAGER, just like the Sibley illustration of first-year male. The trees also had Plumbeous and Warbling Vireos and a hybrid Lazuli x Indigo Bunting, among other things. One of our best stops of the day. CR 75 was a pleasure to bird, with all the greenery and flooded areas along the river. We had another Eastern and Black Phoebe, but these were separated by over a mile. Quite birdy here, too. On our way through the plains we lucked out with Scaled Quail and Northern Mockingbird. John's Lake, a playa where we didn't know what to expect, had 37 White-faced Ibis as well as American Avocet, Wilson's Phalarope, Great-tailed Grackle, all three teals, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. We picked up Loggerhead Shrike on the way to the ponds at CR 75 x 42 (also described on the county birding website), which were lackluster. We flew back to Trinidad for gas and left the plains behind. A fair number of misses: other than Lark Sparrow, sparrows were tough to find; we only had one warbler species; and we had not hit a shorebird jackpot. At Trinidad Lake State Park we only birded the Reilly Canyon entrance. The lake is super-full, and the road is washed out as soon as it hits the shoreline. We added Rock Wren and Blue Grosbeak and saw a lonely ibis on the lakeshore. We continued on to a place described in Holt's book as a good place for Lewis's Woodpecker: a random grove of cottonwoods on a random county road. First we overshot the spot and found Blue-grey Gnatcatcher. When we returned to the cottonwoods, sure enough, a Lewis's Woodpecker flew out and away. We could not believe that, again, the decades-old intel still applied. Bosque Del Oso State Wildlife Area was a special place to bird. I highly recommend visiting in spring. The riparian area just beyond Barron Corrals reminded me of the best migrant traps on the eastern plains, with big old trees and willow tangles along the creek. Except here, the riparian area is not surrounded by empty plains but PJ hillsides, gambell oak, and ponderosas. We had Virginia's Warbler, Cassin's Kingbird, Plumbeous Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak, both bluebirds, Green-tailed Towhee, and five woodpecker species (Downy, Hairy, Red-naped Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, and Lewis's). Seeing the Lewis's was memorable. They were flycatching about five feet off the ground, sometimes landing on low cottonwood branches and sometimes landing on a fallen branch on the ground. When we got closer, we realized that the "fallen branch" was actually a huge antler, and the antler was attached to a recently killed bull elk. It was smelly and half-eaten by some kind of predator or scavenger. We think the Lewis's Woodpeckers were feeding on flies and other insects attracted to the carcass. Wow, quite an ecological moment. We continued on toward Cuchara Pass, picking up a few things along the way. The final stop of note was North Lake SWA, where we had two Eared Grebes trying to pose as shovelers, Orange-crowned Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow, our first Steller's Jays of the day, Great Blue Heron, and Osprey. The lake shimmered in its bowl in the foothills, serene and truly beautiful. At Cuchara Pass we made one last effort to get some mountain birds, which were very tough to find, but eventually a Mountain Chickadee called twice, then a few Hermit Thrushes began to sing in the distance. All in all we tallied about 91 species in Las Animas County on our big day (pending review), and about 105 species total on the weekend. Not bad! It seemed like every place we visited was memorable and beautiful in its own way. Thanks to Cris, Sue, and Susan for accompanying me and finding so many great birds. Thanks also to DFO for being such an excellent community of birders. After a weekend like this, I'm going to miss Colorado. Chris Rurik Westminster CO (for three more weeks) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/d1ee829e-71ea-499f-b5ac-b197a4f6e2fa%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
