Canon City

Today, Gregor, my younger brother joined me on a field trip to Canon City.  We left as the sun was coming up, later than we should have but about as early as either one of us could rouse.  The rain in south central Colorado has been intense the last few weeks.  Normally; if it rains at all, it rains in early August for about a week. It's been raining since the end of June; it started as a timely afternoon shower everyday and slowly progressed into a full on monsoon like downpour.  This last week has been the worst with several days of constant rain coming down in sheets.  The temperature has also been unseasonably low.  July is our hottest month with four weeks or so of high 80's heat.  This year we've been lucky to break about 55 degrees.  As the sun came up it appeared to be more of the same, heavy fog banks obscuring the mountains to the west and the city to the east, thick grey skies overhead.  I warned my brother that this might be a short  bird less trip.  As we drove south on 115 the skies started to clear up and the fog withdrew.  The road was wet but it wasn't raining and the temperature was climbing.  In Canon proper we got doughnuts at an old diner looking place called Roller's.  Absolutely fantastic.  We talked about everything and nothing, as good friends do until our first stop, Temple Canyon Park.

Temple Canyon Park

There are no paved trails in the park, in fact I would rate them as easy Jeep trails.  An easy Jeep trail is still a Jeep trail and I drive a Honda Fit.  We just drove slowly over the broken path and slick rock, picking lines carefully.  We only spun out once though the underside of the car was caked in dirt and mud.  But we made it; I really love that little car.

Juniper Tit

The park is a gorgeous high desert scrub land.  Cactus, cholla, juniper and pinyon trees. The fog had pulled back to only the higher reaches of the tall hills surrounding the park and the light was a perfectly diffused grey.  I hoped that the mist in the air and on the trees might now instead draw birds out.

dew on a juniper

We started walking along the road looking for trails, anything really.  We ended up leaving the road and bush wacking for a short ways.  We could hear birds all around us; magpies, jays, tits, finches, and a few calls that I couldn't identify.  We couldn't see most of them.  A few scrub jays and magpies but the smaller birds were staying hidden.  Ultimately I pointed my camera at a spot on a tree and did get a shot of a Juniper Tit.  I'm not a great landscape photographer; I really don't like shooting landscapes but I figured with the dearth of wildlife I should try to take a few, it was a long enough drive.

Temple Canyon Park

And then Gregor spotted a yellowish green flash zipping from tree to tree.  We moved in its direction trying to be discreet.  It was a female Western Tanager.  This one was absolutely fearless. She got so close to Gregor that he could've touched her if he had wanted.  She posed for a few shots before leading us down the road.

Female Western Tanager

Gregor has an eye for Tanagers, he spotted our best bird of the day, a male Western Tanager in breeding plumage.  While all male Tanagers like to dress in flashy colours for breeding the Western is by far the showiest.  Yellow body and tail with black, white barred wings, and a bright red face.

Male Western Tanager

I think this would be a great place to explore by bike, there's a lot of road and it seems to wind on and on ever deeper into the hills. The road is rough but wide. The ability to move fast and set up small waterers and feeders would pull in tons of birds.

 Common Redpoll

Shortly afterward we returned to the car and made our way to the next stop, Tunnel Drive.  We only saw the tunnels, a single Great Blue Heron and one talkative old man who was more than happy to tell us about all the "waving and shit" the tourists on the Royal Gorge train liked to do.

Aptly named Tunnel Drive

Royal Gorge Train loaded with waving tourists

Our last stop in Canon City proper was the Canon City River Walk.  This long narrow park borders the Arkansas river; I have no idea how long it goes for but we walked a few miles and started in about the middle.  This would be great place to ride a bike if you were looking for a quiet, mellow ride.  This is truly riparian habitat, bordering right next to farmland on one side and a marsh on the other.  The trifecta makes for a nice mix of birds. I finally got a closer in shot of a double crested Cormorant; this one was in a tree top, but we saw quite a few flying low over the river.  We also saw Great Blue heron, though they were in flight and a myriad of little finches and warblers.

Double Crested Cormorant 

 Cottonwood Overgrown by Ivy

I had read that Florence had a nice river park that attracted a lot of heron, including night heron, and egrets.  We may not have found that park, though we did find a river park.  Florence was an absolute dump, the roads were about as rough as our Jeep trail and the people seemed rather hostile and unapproachable.  We left in a hurry.

Our last stop before the ride home was at a Vietnam Memorial on the side of 115.  There was a static model collection with two helicopters, an APC from Fort Carson, a wall with the names of soldiers who were from Fort Carson and the most depressing poem I have ever read in my life.  I was going to take a picture and post it here but i didn't want it on my personal space.  The gist was that as civilians we are completely incapable of enjoying or understanding life.  A great follow up to the disappointment of Florence.  The memorial was very nice other than the poem.

Here's a Monarch Butterfly instead of a depressing poem.

It began raining on the way home, much to no ones surprise.  The fog rolled back in and closed us back into our own sheltered world.  It had been a short trip and a relatively bird less one, but the birds we did see were great birds.