Canon City area
I made a quick trip out to Brush Hollow Reservoir early this afternoon, intent on beating the afterwork fishermen and before the week-end which will likely be quite busy due to nice weather predictions. Boy was I fooled--there were several boats already on the reservoir and several groups of folks on the shoreline, thus reduced numbers of birds.
There was 1 white-headed gull (likely a Ring-billed), 1 male Common Goldeneye, a few Common Mergansers, several Mallards, and a number of Green-winged Teal enjoying the muddy shoreline. The only shorebirds were a few Killdeer. The only saving grace was a small flock of about 20-25 Pinyon Jays.
As weather warmed a little, and the winds were down, I returned to Canon City to hike and bird on Tunnel Drive Trail on the far west side of town. This is a good birding area with some specialty birds, but it can be mercilous if it is cold and especially if there is any wind in the area (as this is located at the mouth of the Royal Gorge canyon, a breeze in town is magnified due to the wind-tunnel effect).
Since it was late in the afternoon by the time I got to Tunnel Drive there were fewer birds than usual. I did hear 3 American Dippers in the Arkansas River than flows about a hundred feet below the trail, but I only saw one of them as the light fades quickly over the river in this deep canyon. During past winters I have found 8-10 or more American Dippers and I suspect there were more today.
About 1 1/2 miles up the trail (which is fairly steep for the first 200 yards, then levels off) I found 2 Canyon Towhees. This species is abundant in this pinyon-juniper area and one can almost be assured of seeing 1 or more here. Within a hundred feet of the towhees I found a sparrow. I didn't get good enough looks to confirm, but I think it was likely a Rufous-crowned Sparrow. This is the same location where I have found this species in past years and they are almost always near Canyon Towhees in this location. Rufous-crowned Sparrow is a specialty bird that has been regular at this location, one of only a few locations in Colorado where they can be found.
Other birds seen were several male Cassin's Finch, a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos, a Crow, 2 Canada Geese by the river and a Canyon Wren (this area often also often has Rock Wrens in winter, though I didn't find any today). I also saw two Northern Flickers who flew close over my head in one of the tunnels (there are several tunnels that the trail goes thru and these flickers were apparently after some insects on the floor of the tunnel when I entered). As the top of the tunnel is only about 15 feet, I ducked when these large birds flew so relatively close to my head).
As I drove past the city water pond I saw about 50-60 American Wigeon, a several Mallards and a few Hooded Mergansers. This large pond can have a lot of waterfowl so I always check it when I go to the Tunnel Drive area.
SeEtta
