This is my last post. My original goal was to do it for a year, and that was in March 2015 so my goal has been met.
Other projects beckon and so its time to step out of the blogosphere, for a while anyways. Much thanks to those who have read my posts, sent in comments and encouraged me along the way.
I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. Aldo Leopold
Spring is in full swing, flowers are blooming, animals are courting…and fierce battles for territory are being waged all around.
Yesterday, I watched a rock-em-sock-em, no-holds-barred battle in the sky! It started with a Red-tailed Hawk flying over Venetucci Farm, with what looked like nesting material in its talons. I had seen a pair in a dead tree earlier and even had one “scream” at me. All this added up to a nest somewhere nearby, probably in the top of a Cottonwood tree, in the riparian forest along Fountain Creek.
While contemplating this tranquil scene there was a sudden blur of white and black as a Swainson’s Hawk dove at the Red-tailed. The Red-tailed quickly flipped upside down, in mid-air, with talons stretched upwards towards its attacker. The aerial “dog fight” continued as after a few more dives by the Swainson’s Hawk, a second Swainson’s joined the attack. The two then took turns diving at the Red-tailed which was kept on the defensive.
After a couple of minutes of this onslaught a second Red-tailed seemed to appear out of nowhere and the Swainson’s Hawks drifted away. I finally located the stick nest atop a Cottonwood tree and this morning a hawk was sitting on it with its head barely protruding. Red-tailed or Swainson’s, that is the question.
Red-tailed Hawks have dominated the air space over Venetucci with Swainson’s Hawks only making guest day hunting appearances. Raptors are very territorial so most likely this battle was a fight for a territory in which to hunt and raise young. With at least three active raptor nests to monitor, at least two occupied by Red-taileds, it will be must see reality TV as this drama unfolds!
Red-tailed Hawk nestling on a now presumed abandoned nest on the border of Venetucci Farm and Pinello Ranch. Photo: Diane FrenchSwainson’s Hawk flying over Pinello Ranch. The dark trailing edge of the wings is one easy field mark to differentiate it from Red-Taileds. Photo: Jeannie MitchellAlso entering this territorial free-for-all is the Great Horned-Owl which are famous for expropriating nests from other birds. In this case, they evicted a pair of Red-tailed Hawks from this nest. A severed Red-tailed Hawk wing was found on the ground underneath the nest. Photo: Diane French
Every part of the country has its different sure signs of spring. Growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, it was the return of the robin. On the west coast it might be Cliff Swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, California (though even that venerable tradition is under threat: http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/02/23/50003/san-juan-capistrano-looks-for-new-ways-lure-back-s/ ). I’ve had to re-calibrate my spring clock since moving to Colorado in 1990. Now what I look for is a combination of birds, flowers and insects.
As for birds it is another member of the Thrush family. Instead of the robin I am on the lookout for the Mountain Bluebird. Males are a spectacular sky blue and they typically travel in small flocks, heading up into the mountains as early as February and March. They somehow survive the late winter and spring snow storms and find enough to eat.
Say’s Phoebe are another bird to look for in March. These flycatchers are very tolerant of humans and are often found nesting under the eaves of houses and porches. We even had one spend the winter with us at Venetucci Farm, instead of migrating (see my Feb 3rd Blog entry https://naturethroughtheseasons.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/winter-visitors/ for more on the wintering Say’s Phoebe).
The first insect that catches my eye each spring is the Mourning Cloak. This somber named butterfly has purplish-brown wings edged with yellow and accented with blue spots. They are one of the insects that are able to survive winter as adults by seeking shelter, sometimes under tree bark, and then producing antifreeze-like chemicals that keep them from freezing.
Lastly, there is the humble Crocus Flower, sometimes known as the Prairie Flower or Pasque Flower as it shoots up around Easter. One of the first spring flowers, it hugs the ground for protection. This year, I found my first one on April 4th, a week after Easter, sheltered in a small canyon in nearby Garden of the Gods park.
As the climate continues to change these seasonal signals, also known as phenology, can also change. Check out this cool site to learn more and even participate in sharing your observations as a Citizen Scientist!
Our winter rebel. While other Say’s Phoebes were warmly snapping up insects well to the south, this individual stuck around Venetucci Farm, probably using access to our barn and asparagus shed to help it survive the cold.
Mountain Bluebird male. That these small thrushes can survive late winter in the mountains is a testament to their hardiness.To really appreciate a Mourning Cloak butterfly, you have to see them in the sun. Then the purple in their wings comes out.The Prairie Crocus seems to irrupt out of nowhere and then suddenly they are everywhere.
For most of my life owls have seemed mysterious, rarely sighted and solitary. To see a nesting pair was a great coup. However all of my preconceptions were thrown out the window last week as I saw 27 owls comprising 5 different species, all in two days!
To begin with, this was only possible with some expert help, a bit of luck and a quirk of some owls’ habits. Turns out, some owls, like Short-eared and Long-eared, winter together in communal roosts, clustering together in relative proximity on their wintering grounds. The fact that this happens in Colorado and I happen to have a friend who had discovered roosting spots was exceptional good fortune.
The last bit of good fortune was finding two owls at Pinello Ranch, a Western Screech Owl, first found by one of our volunteers, and the second a Great Horned Owl, a pair are nesting somewhere on the Pinello Ranch/Venetucci Farm border. In all, I saw 10 Long-eared Owls fluttering around their day roost in brushy groves of Russian Olive trees, 14 Short-eared Owls erupting from open prairie riddled with ground squirrel burrows, 1 Barn Owl also amongst Russian Olives and Cottonwood trees, 1 Screech Owl roosting in a hollow of a Siberian Elm tree and 1 Great Horned Owl swooping amongst ancient Cottonwood trees. Unfortunately, only the Long-eared Owls and Western Screech Owl were obliging photographic subjects.
A male Long-eared Owl paused in a grove of Russian Olive trees. We estimated a total of at least 10 of these raptors and owl pellets littered the groundFemale Long-eared Owl. Note the especially long “ear” tufts and dark vertical stripes running through the eyes.Western Screech-Owls have the charming habit of dozing in the sun on winter days quite oblivious to birders and their cameras. Occasionally the owl would peak from one eye, letting us know it was aware of us.
The standard view of winter is of loss. Flowers, butterflies, leaves on trees, hibernating mammals and migrating birds: all gone. Winter is thus just a cold, quiet, sparse time. The most notable exception to this is the arrival of winter ducks from the north (for a discussion of them, please visit my 11/9/2015 blog post).
However, there are other winter bird visitors as well. In Colorado, some of these are altitudinal migrants moving down the mountains to lower elevations. Others come from as far north as the Arctic. To them, Colorado is their “Florida”. Then there are the strange cases of birds that for some reason don’t migrate at all, though virtually all other members of their species have done so. I have found that the more I seek out all of these various winter visitors, the more I enjoy and appreciate the season.
This winter my searches have been rewarded with Rough-legged Hawks, American Tree Sparrows, Lapland Longspurs and Rosy Finches. White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Pine Siskins and, in some years, Harris’s Sparrow are also welcome visitors. A single Say’s Phoebe decided to go it alone and has stayed all winter at Venetucci Farm, while its fellow phoebes have all gone south. And like any good fisherman’s story, there has to be the one (or in this case several) that got away. A brief glimpse of a short-eared Owl at dusk, tantalizing reports of Snowy Owls, Snow Buntings, Redpolls and Long-eared Owls are all birds still out there to seek.
Before long the season will shift and as early as February, birds will begin to move north again. I thus find myself not dreading the long and endless winter but rather feeling how ephemeral and shortly lived this season is.
Say’s Phoebe. While other phoebes have headed south during migration, this lone individual has been at Venetucci Farm all winter.
Harris’s Sparrow. This northern visitor typically winters in the midwest, but a few visit Colorado each winter. Photo: Pinello Ranch, courtesy of Gloria Nikolai.
American Tree Sparrow. Another northern visitor, they can commonly be found in mixed flocks with White-crowned Sparrows. Photo: Pinello Ranch.
Black Rosy Finch. Along with Brown-capped and Gray-crowned Rosy Finches, these birds move to lower elevations in the winter. Photo: Victor, CO.
Lapland Longspur. These relatives of sparrows are commonly found mixed in with large flocks of Horned Lark on the prairie. Photo: near Arriba, CO.
Rough-legged Hawk. A visitor from the farthest northern reaches of North America. Photo: eastern El Paso County.
Just a couple days after winter solstice and I’m wending my way up a foothill trail on the east flank of the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, AZ. My guide, Dodie, leads the way. We are looking for birds, but at a deeper level I am looking for immersion. To connect to a healthy landscape is healing, revitalizing.
As we hike through thick grasses, bushes and trees the landscape is animated by birds. A glossy, blue-black Phainopepla perches atop a nearby tree looking at us with crimson eyes. Pyrrhuloxia, gray cardinals with red accents, move through the landscape along with southwest sparrows like the Rufous-crowned and Black-chinned. Whispered calls clue us in to the presence of a Crissal’s Thrasher that Dodie expertly identifies before I even am aware of the sound. This is a healthy landscape for wintering birds and for those of us lucky enough to walk the trails and I relish every minute.
Back home in Colorado, my thoughts turn to Pinello Ranch and Venetucci Farm, where I work as the Education Coordinator. There are trails going through healthy landscapes there as well. With the help of a cadre of dedicated volunteers we have been exploring the wild corners of both properties for the last several years. Even on a busy farm, there are places where you can feel that same connection that I recently experienced in Portal. 2016 is going to see dramatic changes at both Venetucci and Pinello in how we share these places with the public.
For starters, at Venetucci Farm we are going to begin the process to create a self-guided birding trail where people can explore the many hidden and not so hidden areas of this 250 acre urban farm. Brown Thrashers, Blue Grosbeaks, Lazuli Buntings, Yellow-breasted Chats and Dickcissels are some of the birds singing from Coyote Willow’s thick vegetation. In the open areas, alongside fields of grain and pumpkins, Western and Eastern Kingbirds and Vesper Sparrows perch on fence lines while Red-tailed and Swainson’s Hawks patrol the skies.
Pinello Ranch is also going through dramatic changes as Colorado Springs Utilities begins a Master Planning process for this 100+ year old iconic ranch of the Pikes Peak Region. This is perhaps the most dramatic turn of events since Italian immigrant brothers Alphonso and Angelo Pinello bought the, then named, Skinner Ranch in 1912.
It is the hope of the farm and ranch staff and of our parent organization, the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, that local agriculture and wildlife conservation will be important aspects of Pinello Ranch’s future. The Master Planning process will include opportunities for public input and I will make sure that those who have visited and are interested in Pinello Ranch are kept apprised of these opportunities as the information becomes public.
We are looking forward to an exciting 2016 and hope to see you “down on the farm”. Please let me know if you would like to be added to our email list so we can keep you up to date on new outings as well as the Pinello Ranch Master Planning process.
With your help we plan on keeping wild landscapes wild for future generations to immerse themselves in.
Happy New Year,
David Rudin
drudin@ppcf.org
Education Coordinator, Venetucci Farm and Pinello Ranch
Phainopepla. A Silky Flycatcher of the Southwest. The only member of its family in the US. Portal, AZ
Pyrrhuloxia. A close relation to the Cardinal and another southwest specialist. Portal, AZ
Western Kingbirds. Photo: Diane French. A large and territorial flycatcher they are common summer visitors to Venetucci Farm.
Swainson’s Hawk. Photo: Jeannie Mitchell. These soaring hawks migrate all the way to Argentina in the winter. Venetucci Farm.
Lazuli Bunting. Photo: Diane French. The beautiful songs of the Lazuli are a great treat to visitors to Coyote Willows at Venetucci Farm.
Blue Grosbeak singing at Coyote Willows on Venetucci Farm
For many people, winter can be a little depressing. Shorter days, trees losing their leaves and birds heading south to warmer climes. Fortunately, it’s not all loss. There are also new visitors who head south and join us during winter. I’m living in Colorado, and this means elk move down from the higher elevations and a host of birds either migrate from northern latitudes or migrate down the mountains to lower altitudes.
At Pinello Ranch, this means American Tree Sparrows, Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers moving south and Dark-eyed Juncos and White Crowned Sparrows moving to lower altitudes. However, for a splash of color during winter, it is the winter ducks I look to. Most of the ducks that visit us molt into their breeding plumage by late fall and thus they are at their feathery finest when we lead guided birding hikes at Pinello Ranch.
There are a host of ducks to enjoy including: teals, mergansers, goldeneyes, ring-neckeds, redheads, scaups, wigeons, canvasbacks, shovelers etc… The list is long and for beginning birders the bonus is that they are relatively easy to see. Unlike song birds that are small, quick moving birds, hiding in trees; ducks are relatively large and move little if you give them enough space so as not to disturb them. Here are a few photos taken at Pinello Ranch of some of my favorites.
Ring-necked Ducks are among my favorites, though you might wonder why they aren’t called Ring-billed Ducks given that striking mark.
The most striking of the teals, the Cinnamon is a gorgeous reddish color, especially when the sun strikes them.
There is no mistaking this filter feeder when seen in profile. This is because Northern Shovelers sport a massive bill in order to sift out water plants and invertebrates.
A pair of American Wigeons, once known as baldpates because of the male’s white forehead.
This visitor from the far north, the Common Goldeneye, is a favorite of many. Incredibly hardy, it is always the last duck species to arrive and the first to head back north. Photo courtesy of Luis Ramirez
The aptly named Redhead is a diving duck that visits us too infrequently. Photo courtesy of Diane French.
Hooded Mergansers are diving ducks that feed on fish. They use serrations on their narrow bills to help secure their catch.
In the birding world, there are a variety of groups of birds that present classic identification challenges. There are the gulls and terns, the flycatchers and the sparrows, to name some of the more notorious. Sparrows are not just challenging but are often viewed as worth so little attention that they become LBJ’s, Little Brown Jobs.
Sparrows can be hard to find, difficult to identify and often lack the splashy colors of other groups of birds, like the warblers. However sparrows have some defining characteristics that make their study full of not only challenges but the commensurate rewards as well. First, to be clear, what are we talking about when we say sparrows?
The sparrows I’m referencing are from the Order Passeriformes, the songbirds. Within this large group there are the 64 North American members of the family Emberizidae, that include new world sparrows, juncos, towhees, buntings and longspurs.
Sparrows offer a subtle beauty that, like many of life’s pleasures, are an acquired taste. From a palette of gray, brown, red and an occasional splash of yellow comes an infinite number of hues. These endless fine distinctions remind me of the Gambel Oaks in the Colorado Foothills. No match for the glory of a Vermont fall, each autumn they nonetheless offer an inspiring study in how endless variation can also reach the sublime.
Sparrows are also egalitarian. One need not be able to afford a tropical vacation to pursue them. They exist in vacant lots, backwoods and city parks as well as in wilderness haunts far from the trappings of human beings. Many have the pluck to stick it out through tough northern winters, making their pursuit possible year round.
Many sparrows offer a surprise bonus: they are supreme songsters. The haunting song of the White-crowned Sparrow at 12,000 feet, treeline, in the Rocky Mountains, the diverse repertoire of Song Sparrows as males square off in singing duels in neighborhood wetlands, the vocal gymnastics performed by Lark Sparrows, sounding like the special effects soundtrack from Star Wars out on the short grass prairie and the tireless song of a Vesper Sparrow singing from a fence in the back pasture.
Finally, sparrows are the true underdog. Jesus himself is quoted as noting, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? He then gives them a little shout-out by adding, Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. Who knew I would have Jesus backing me up in my pursuit of sparrows?
Besides divine guidance, I think there is a natural human inclination to root for the underdog. It is the great American story really; the scruffy kid from nowhere who makes it with nothing more than his own gumption. Sparrows certainly don’t have much of a current fan base, but the more I learn, the more I pursue them, the more I have come to appreciate them.
So here’s to the sparrow, the mysterious in the common place; the blue collar bird worthy of a second look. To help launch anyone, who’ll take me up on this quixotic quest, I am including some portraits of a few of my favorites.
The signature song of treeline in the Rockies. White-crowned Sparrows are altitudinal migrants who winter at Pinello Ranch
Lincoln’s Sparrow. These sweet singing sparrows nest among high altitude wetland bushes.
The Vesper Sparrow is a tireless singer of open country. They are at home singing from fences.
Vesper Sparrows are quite happy to make due with an old straw bale as a singing platform. Photo: Diane French
Song Sparrows (close relatives of Lincoln’s) are famous singers. Males may have 10-12 different songs and engage in song duels with neighborhood rivals. Photo: Diane French
Chipping Sparrows are easy to identify in spring and summer when they sport a distinctive rufous cap, to go with a dark eye line.
On a recent break from Colorado I had the amazing opportunity to explore the “Sky Islands” of southeastern Arizona. These scattered mountain ranges, separated from one another by grassland and desert, are incredibly biodiverse. With plant and animal species representatives from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts as well as the Rocky and Sierra Madre Mountains, this is a biological crossroads.
Most of my time was spent at the Southwestern Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains where I participated in their annual Herpetology of the Southwest, a ten day workshop focusing on the reptiles and amphibians of the Chiricahua Mountains and the surrounding desert and grasslands.
This intense ten day course, combined lectures, labs and mostly field work. With all the appropriate permits in place, we were able to find and photograph 56 species of reptiles and amphibians. On my own in the Santa Rita Mountains, after the course ended, I was able to add one more.
One could easily be stunned by the world renowned variety of birds, beetles, ants and/or bats and the list goes on. Below are a few photographic highlights.
This Twin-spotted Rattlesnake is one of the mountain rattlesnakes. Twin spots most commonly occur on Sky Island talus slopes.
Talus slopes like these provide sanctuary for Twin spots.
Canyon Tree Frogs blend in well in rocky, well-watered side canyons.
This Rock Rattlesnake, like the other two mountain species we came across, is smaller than its lowland relatives. This is an adaptation to living in a colder climate with a shorter active season.
The Green Ratsnake ranges from Costa Rica north to just a few mountain ranges in southeast AZ & NM.
As its name implies, the Desert Kingsnake is adapted to lower, warmer elevations in the deserts outside of the sky islands.
This Sonoran Coralsnake belongs to the Elapidae family, which includes such infamous characters as mambas and cobras. Rarely seen, it has a powerful venom, but is shy, avoids people and has tiny fangs.
The third of the sky-island rattlesnakes. The Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake is an ongoing mystery of biogeography why they are found in some sky islands, like the Santa Ritas in this case, and not others, like the Chiricahuas.
I am walking along a treeless expanse, though at over 12,000 feet in elevation this isn’t the prairie but rather the Alpine life zone. It is July so I am blessed with an incredible riot of wildflowers erupting in a rainbow of colors. White-crowned Sparrows’ ethereal songs issue from stunted conifers, or Krummholz, on the periphery and Yellow-bellied Marmots whistle from rock piles.
Treeline typically begins at 12,000 feet in Colorado, but it is a ragged, uneven line beyond which trees cannot survive and varies due to latitude as well. Nights are cold, even in July, as my wife and I recently found out camping near the summit of Cottonwood Pass. Clouds, rain and wind rolled by nearly all day adding to the spectacle. However, it was the flowers that stole the show. Plants here have a short window of time to go through their life cycle and mid-July is typically the peak of the season.
With binoculars for wildlife, a camera and a copy of the classic Guennel’s “Guide to Colorado Wildflowers, Vol 2: Mountains” I was set. This classic has close up photographs of flowers and illustrations of the plant. (I managed to procure the last copy from The Book Nook in Buena Vista before we headed up.)
Here are some photographic highlights, including those flowers whose identification I feel pretty confident about. Visits are always too short as is the season, but get up there while you can and you won’t be disappointed!
Harris’s Sparrow. These sparrows nest in some of the harshest terrain on the edge of the Canadian Tundra. Occasionally a few winter in Colorado but typically they prefer the midwest. Photo: Gloria Nikolai
A Naturalist's Journal 