7.15.2014

I'm blessed to live in a place with great riding and lots of birds, both in number of species and total population numbers.  I ride my bike to work; most days, in a riparian ecosystem.  I follow Cottonwood Creek from Manitou to Goose Gossage park, where I turn east and follow one of its small feeder streams all the way to work.  The ride starts out in my neighborhood in the hills above Garden of the gods park.  From my porch I can see the entire city, north to Palmer Lake and south to Pueblo.  From my front door the Front Range towers over me, obscuring even Pikes Peak.  To the southwest is the gleaming Will Rogers shrine and the Broadmoor hotel.  The red rock spires of the Garden  and red rocks canyon open space are to the northeast. 

 

 Colorado Springs at night from Pegasus Station

 

All about me are black chinned hummingbirds, pygmy and white chested nuthatches, three types of screaming jays, rosy head finch, downy and hairy woodpecker, ravens, crows,  both colour morphs of northern flickers, untold warblers, sparrows and other passerines.  The forest is alive here, dark green and secluding.  I have stands of scrub oak and mighty ponderosa pines mainly, a few deciduous trees that I do not know are on the property but they aren't as grand as the oak and pine.  The sun rises over the city splitting the horizon into light sky and dark earth before setting behind the mountains, leaving an extended period of uniform, golden light in the evening.  There is no grass, just leaf litter and piles of dead branches.  Massive tiger swallowtail butterflies compete with the birds for attention while white tail deer lay with their fawns in the undergrowth. 

                  I think that is an Allen's Hummingbird, the copper gorget and green back might be misleading me

                                                                    Stellar's Jay from Pegasus Station

It's rained almost every night for the past week and the morning air is thick and clean smelling.  It takes me about an hour to get to work and the early mornings are the best times to ride, it's cool, almost cold, and humid.  There's no traffic until the crossroads of 21st and highway 24.  Bombing down the hill is a great wake up, the air rushes past at 40 miles per hour.  After turning onto 21st the forest gives way to a decidedly urban area, apartments complexes, houses, a shopping center complete with a touring company, a candy maker and a western theme bar.  After the crossroads the trail turns north and east into a slum.  It's a weird part of town, Old Colorado City, the affluent tourists and the blue collar residents create a weird mix in the old place.  There are truly ancient buildings butted up against ones from the 50's and 70's butted up against brand new ones.  There's graffiti everywhere, but it's welcomed in most places.  There are several car grave yards and ruined buildings on my way to the Colorado Street bridge, which marks the boundary from urban waste to upscale downtown.  

                                                                          Hairy Woodpecker, Pegasus Station

At the bridge, Cottonwood Creek becomes evident, flowing mildly in a built up ditch strewn with ruins built by Penrose and the ultra-modern Colorado College dorms. It's a dirt trail here and my 35c knobbies chew through it as easily as the pavement.  There aren't many trees along this stretch.  But the birds are plentiful nonetheless.  Swallows reside under the numerous small bridges in their little mud jug nests.  Flickers not as shy here.  A red shafted refused to flee from the margins of the trail as I ripped passed.  What a beautiful bird! They're among my favorites.  The red shafteds are darker than the yellows and the contrast from the black to the tan is much more defined.  When the fly their red tinged primaries and brilliant white spot on their backs make quite an impression.  I could've reached down and touched this one, lucky for him I'm such an awful bike handler. 

 

                                                            Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker, Pegasus Station

 

After CC there is a short section that is truly overgrown with Cottonwood trees.  Their roots break through the disintegrating pavement  and small stumps sit in the middle of the trail.  Through this forested section run two bridges, the first is a plastic bridge under which nothing flows unless it's been raining, the other is a concrete bridge that spans the narrow creek.  Both of the bridges are lined with trees from which kingfisher and warbler call.  After the bridge is Goose Gossage park, basically a community green space.  Baseball diamonds, soccer fields, a dirt jump course, pretty normal.  There's a bridge over the creek that I take to get to work, the bridge is a favorite hangout of some very large ravens, a few grey squirrels and one rock squirrel who doesn't seem to mind bikes. 

 

This bridge ends the riparian system and enters me into a very nice trailer park.  Which turns into a not as nice industrial park that I ride next too for a few miles.  The trail is off of the industrial center and runs next to a small marshy stream that feeds Cottonwood Creek.  Brewer's blackbirds, cowbirds, wrens and sparrows are active in the morning in the marsh and pay little heed to me.  The industrial park turns back into a residential area, another old, established neighborhood, this one though sits at the base of a small canyon mesa thing called Palmer Park, a favorite of mountain bikers who shred the gnar at all hours of the night and day.  There's one more interesting feature of my commute before the road gives way completely to human development and house finch and sparrow.  At the crossroads of Union and Austin Bluffs is a drainage way.  This is part of the Templeton Gap trail that I've been following since I left Goose Gossage.  It's a labyrinthine structure with no markings for its myriad passages, no graffiti, barn swallows, and a few gulls.  There are two bridges that run over it, one directly over and the other runs somewhere inside it.  It's such a weird thing, probably very commonplace in larger, wetter cities but it's the first one I've encountered. 

 

                                                             Spotted Towhee, Stratton Open Space near Pegasus

After the drainage thing the path turns to road and houses.  Work is only a few minutes away and I spend the time bracing myself for the day instead of watching for birds, planning bike purchases and contemplating training goals.  

I have to apologize, i have no pictures of my commute, i talk myself out of taking my camera every time that i ride it.