Canon City Riverwalk update

Today was a beautiful Thanksgiving day--the last day of a stretch of mild weather for the past week. With temps in the upper 60's to 70 in SE Colorado, it invited a walk to enjoy the pleasant weather and look for birds. So I took a walk on the Canon City Riverwalk. All the species I saw are seen either seasonally or year-round on the Riverwalk and many other locations in SE Colorado while several are fairly common throughout North America.

One of the first birds I saw was a male Downy Woodpecker. It worked a tree, picking juicy morsels from the bark. Of course, there were several Northern Flickers along the trail. I heard a reticent Bewick's Wren that scolded me but wouldn't come out in the open. I saw only one White-breasted Nuthatch and one Brown Creeper.

I was surprised to see one Black-billed Magpies flying across a field, though I used to see flocks of them before the West Nile Virus hit. This species took a big hit from the first year of the West Nile Virus and has only made a partial recovery here.

I was pleased to find a small flock of American Tree Sparrows (photo by Linda Williams from Mobirds.org). These pink-billed sparrows arrive in the fall in Colorado and spend the winter. A Lincoln's Sparrow was in the same Rabbitbrush as the Tree Sparrows, and a Song Sparrow was nearby. American Goldfinch made their distinctive call all along the trail. In addition to a small flock of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, there were several more scattered around the area.

SeEtta