Thank you David for your excellent report. As you noted this remote area draws considerable interest when the opportunity to see rare migrants are present there is a dearth of birder visits otherwise even though the resident birds need documenting. As I have gotten older I am leary of traveling to remote locations so I thoroughly enjoyed getting to visit there via your report.
SeEtta Moss Canon City On Sun, Jan 30, 2022, 10:34 AM David Suddjian <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi CoBirders, > > Friday January 28 I made the long journey from home to spend the morning > at Cottonwood Canyon along the border of Baca and Las Animas Counties. This > iconic Colorado birding spot is pretty far out there and far off paved > roads. It took me about 5 hours to get there from home, arriving at the > canyon just before 8 am. Yes, a five hour drive. It's good to travel it in > the dark, though, or you'd never get there for all the birding on the way. > The area is mostly visited in the spring and summer, when birds are more > diverse and some fun migrants and nesting species live there. There > are three eBird hotspots for the Cottonwood Canyon area, and these offer a > perspective on sparse winter birding coverage. Collectively these three > hotspots had only 10 prior complete checklists ever submitted from the area > for January, and none of the three hotspots had any complete lists reported > since last September. The CFO County Birding page has an account for > Cottonwood Canyon on its Baca County page. The description begins > encouragingly, "*This remote and beautiful canyon is one of the most > unique in the state. It is home to plants, butterflies, and even birds that > regularly occur nowhere else in Colorado*." Directions and some more > info are here: > https://coloradocountybirding.org/County/BySite.aspx?SiteID=36&CountyID=5 > > I had been to Cottonwood Canyon once before, in early October. Although > January is "off-season" I wanted to go see what was there and to be in that > lovely country. In winter, with the cold temps and late sunrise, it is not > worth getting there too early. When I arrived about an hour after sunrise, > much of the canyon was still in morning shadow. Cottonwood Canyon is > similar to the other canyons of southeastern Colorado. It is > relatively shallow, with rimrock above canyon slopes with varied and often > sparse juniper cover, and a riparian corridor. Las Animas County Road 24.4 > drops you quickly into the upper canyon area, where the surrounding slopes > come down near to the drainage. Here the canyon has a unique character with > large full-on tree-size Gamble oaks, fat cottonwoods and junipers growing > densely in the canyon bottom, with oak scrub and junipers fairly dense > along the side slopes. The oaks add a different character. The stream flows > all year, and had many open water areas on my visit. A Baca County road > follows the canyon downstream to south-southeast, as it broadens out and > the riparian corridor is isolated amid grassland, and the side slopes > become more sparsely vegetated with juniper and less scrub oak. > > I sampled the canyon's birds along about five miles over three and a half > hours. I noted 35 species, which I've listed below with my counts from the > checklists I made. The biriest areas were along the canyon slopes where > there was scrub oak, and locally in some weedy patches along the road. The > large trees had relatively little now, except for woodpeckers. Rare birds > were a Black-throated Sparrow with a large White-crowned flock in Baca > County, and a Green-tailed Towhee in Las Animas County. I had the three > towhees together there, and towhees were one of the delights of my canyon > tour. Spotted Towhees were ridiculously common, with small parties > everywhere there were scrub oaks. I tallied 102 Spotteds! Sometimes there > were flocks of 8-12 birds. I'd pish and they just kept coming up. No doubt > a thorough count of all the Spotteds in the whole canyon find several 100s. > Species characteristic of the southeastern canyons were represented with 2 > Greater Roadrunners, 16 Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, 2 Juniper Titmouse, 2 > Canyon Wrens, 24 Canyon Towhees, and 5 Rufous-crowned Sparrows. A total of > 26 woodpeckers was a satisfying result. The local junipers did not have > many berries, so Mountain Bluebirds and American Robins were not > especially plentiful, but there were a moderate number of Tonsend's > Solitaires. I enjoyed finding 2 Mallards in a large open pool along the > stream; knowing how limited open water is out in that area, I imagined that > maybe they were the only two ducks for many miles around. > > The most striking and memorable thing at Cottonwood Canyon was the > silence. But for the occasional breeze, the mewing calls of Spotted > Towhees, the carrying croaks of ravens, and the shallow new snow under my > boots, it was... silent. I didn't see another person until after 11:30 am., > although I was on county roads all along. It was a bit of paradise. > > David Suddjian > Ken Caryl Valley > Littleton, CO > > Mallard, 2 > Wild Turkey, 41 > Greater Roadrunner, 2 > Golden Eagle, 2 > Red-tailed Hawk, 1 > Great Horned Owl, 1 > Downy Woodpecker, 1 > Ladder-backed Woodpecker, 16 > Hairy Woodpecker, 6 > Northern Flicker, 3 > Woodhouse-s Scrub-Jay, 7 > American Crow, 9 > Common Raven, 38 > Juniper Titmouse, 3 > White-breasted Nuthatch, 2 > Rock Wren, 2 > Canyon Wren, 2 > Bewick's Wren, 2 > Curve-billed Thrasher, 1 > Sage Thrasher, 3 > Mountain Bluebird, 17 > Townsend's Solitaire, 21 > American Robin, 19 > House Finch, 14 > American Goldfinch, 2 > Black-throated Sparrow,1 > American Tree Sparrow, 12 > Dark-eyed Junco, 48 > White-crowned Sparrow, 96 > Harris's Sparrow, 1 > Song Sparrow, 9 > Canyon Towhee, 24 > Rufous-crowned Sparrow, 5 > Green-tailed Towhee, 1 > Spotted Towhee, 103 > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Colorado Birds" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en > * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include > bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate > * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ > --- > 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 view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGj6RoqX3kGB8F1xgvfV7V5mWQ0q%2BL8R%3DDUMrMP2dzZB4hp3jQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGj6RoqX3kGB8F1xgvfV7V5mWQ0q%2BL8R%3DDUMrMP2dzZB4hp3jQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ --- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAAUvckrki-B7pmGYOzG5g7W6S4PufBPh29RWsF-aZZ9zrNUEqw%40mail.gmail.com.
