Your Birding Trip to Colorado

David (dstrother@pop.dn.net)
Thu, 04 Jun 1998 21:38:16 -0400 

Darius Ecker wrote:

> I'd be interested in seeing your complete Colorado List.  I'm going out to
> Colorado for a week in August.

For sure, you'll want to take the ABA/Lane "Birders Guide to Colorado"
by Harold Holt.  It was re-done in 1997 and is really super.  The
"Specialties of Colorado" section starting on p.310 is invaluable.  

If you want to visit the ABA HQ and sales room in Colorado Springs, be
sure to copy the map shown on the back of the most recent catalog.  It's
located at 720 W. Monument, which is damn nigh impossible to find, since
Monument is interrupted by a railway right-of-way.  If convenient, go in
the afternoon when the view back over the Springs is quite
remarkable....hardly looks like Colorado.

Here's what we've seen:
Buena Vista:  Mountain Bluebird, Pinyon Jay, Black-headed Grosbeak,
Rufous Hummer, and Broad-tailed Hummer (the metallic whirring of the
male BTH's wings is really amazing!)

St. Elmo:  Steller's Jay, Gray-headed junco, calliope hummer (and _many_
broad-tailed), and Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Salida: (mostly in the brush at the fishing pond by the Spiral Drive
turnoff from 291) Wilson's Warbler, MacGillivray's Warbler, Bohemian
Waxwing, and, in one of the ponds near the old smelter, Franklin's Gull

Arkansas River near Cotopaxi:  White-throated swift, Pectoral Sandpiper

Mountain road west from Beulah:  Golden Eagles

Garden of the Gods:  Spotted Towhee, white-throated swift, black-headed
Grosbeak

USAFA:  Mountain Plover

......and as Holt says, if you don't see black-billed Magpies in
Colorado, you may want to take up another avocation....

Best meals-  
Salida:  Il Vicino brewpub & pizzaria; Laughing Ladies
Poncha Springs:  Jackson Hotel (outstanding Colorado steakhouse)
Colorado Springs:  Il Vicino, Phantom Canyon brewpub

B&Bs:  
Buena Vista:  Meister House (particularly the "Room by the River); tell
'em I sent you
Salida: Inn by the River, NW of town, great riparian birdsite
Both of these have websites.

Have a good trip!
David