July 6th Salida Bird trip

Today, I went out birding with my dear friend, Brandy.  Normally I would have loaded the Sportif and cruised around town since it's a little bit of bird heaven here.  However, I've decided that I should start driving to a "destination" once or twice a week, schedule allowing.  I can afford to now with the Bluebird, I'm learning a lot about this great state, and best of all, I'm seeing new birds! Crazy, right?!  We chose to check out Salida, a small town near the Arkansas River headwaters, tucked in between the Sangre de Christo, Front, and Collegiate ranges.  We left later then we had planned, filled up at the bottom of the hill on 21st street, and headed west on highway 24 towards Woodland Park.  The sky was clear and the temperature was approaching the 70's at 7.30a.  Breakfast consisted of McDonald's, the downside of waking up late.  I hate air conditioning so we drove with the windows down, music blaring over the wind noise, yelling to each other.  We talked about her child, Lily, and family, hopes and dreams.  The high montane pinyon-juniper forest spread out on either side of us, one final turn and Mt. Princeton hove into view, looming in the distance.  The Collegiate mountains are truly beautiful mountains, maybe the best looking ones in the state.  Deep blue at the base, giving way to light purple and crowned in bright white snow.  Our talk shifted to God and His creation, His limitless love, the end times, Satan, and the meaning of Gods name, "Yahweh", I am that I am.  A powerful thought, God is Mt. Princeton, He is the pinyon-juniper forest, He is the wrens and sparrows we're hoping to see.  His presence can be felt anywhere as is said in Romans 1.20.  Personally I think that you can see and feel Him more in the wild places, further from mans influence.  We turned onto 285, south, towards Buena Vista.  Soon after we had reached our first stop, Mount Ouray State Wildlife Area.

 Mt. Ouray SWA

 Mt. Ouray SWA

A tiny bog next to the Arkansas with two large ponds where fisherman cast for trout.  Red Winged blackbirds perched in the reedy cattails by the dozens, cackling too each other.  The males chased rivals into the massive cottonwoods where tree swallows hunted the swarms of horse flies.  Bird nest boxes lined the overgrown trail, all inhabited by the shiny blue swallows.

Red Winged Blackbird males

 

Tree Swallow

                                                                    Male Tree Swallow
 
We walked to the end of the trail, right to the edge of the river, and watched a group of rafters float lazily by.  On our return we crossed over one of the many little creeks flowing through the bog and onto the narrow spit that separated the bog from the river.  Yellow warblers flitted past crying alarms.  We chased after one, trying to get a picture, we ultimately spooked a doe out of her cool hiding place and retreated to the other end of the sandbar.  On our way back to the car we caught a glance of a viceroy butterfly, again, I was too slow with my lens.  We then stopped at Frantz Lake SWA a short mile drive away from Ouray SWA.  Frantz Lake is a small fishing pond stocked with trout from the local fish hatchery, cottonwoods tower over the small lake providing shade to fisherman and shelter to birds.  There was a sign posted with a list of the common birds found at the lake.  Widgeon, Merganser, tree swallow, heron.  I'd like to go back in the fall during the migration.  We saw one whole mallard duck.
                                                                Breeding Damselflies

After such a lackluster visit we walked over to the Mt. Shavano Fih Hatchery.  The hatchery is right besides the Arkansas, we'd gotten a tip from a fisherman that a "baby eagle who ate fish" was roosting in the trees near the hatchery.  The volunteer who gave us our tour of the hatchery hadn't seen any Osprey since the spring but invited us to come back out in the evening when the blue and green herons attacked the hatchery fish.  We both had to work the next morning to our great displeasure and weren't able to stay into the evening and night.
                                                                 Rainbow trout fingerlings


The return to the Springs was wrought with traffic.  Miles of it.  It took us about two hours to get to Salida and three and half to get home.  It sucked, plainly.  We got back right in time for the afternoon rains to start, cooling the land and bringing nuthatches and hummers out to feed in the evening.  It was a pretty fantastic day.