On Tuesday, my family and I made a trip to Southwestern Colorado. The trip was amazing with so many new lifers. The first day was spent traveling to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. In between, we stopped for lunch at a picnic area in the mountains where I found 2 lifers, A pine Siskin (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294336060) and a Cassie’s Finch (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294336662). After making it to the park and not finding the Gunnison Sage Grouse, We went to Curecanti National Recreation Area and found a Gunnison Prairie dog, listed as vulnerable (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294581797) and made it back to the campground to step up tent for the night. Before nightfall, I was able to find more lifers like Plumbeous Vireo (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294589081), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294589379), and Dusky flycatcher (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294589549). With those, I also found a huge target of mine, the Virginia’s Warbler (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294590015) (I edited the picture by increasing the saturation as the bird was just black in the original picture). After stargazing at night, we left in the morning to get to Durango for the next part of our trip. We drove through the Million Dollar Highway and ended up riding the Durango-Silverton Train for most of the day. At the end of the day, however, we hiked on the Colorado Trail near Durango and found 2 big targets of mine, The Grace’s Warbler (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294754526), and my favorite mammal of the trip, the Abert’s Squirrel (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/294754342). For the 3rd day of the trip, we went to Mesa Verde National Park where we visited the Cliff Palace and other house. After that, we decided hike a little on the petroglyph trail where I spotted even more crazy lifers for me like Common Sagebrush Lizard (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/295004712), Black-Throated Gray Warbler (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/295005351), and the craziest one of them all, a Gray Vireo (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/295005840). This concluded the trip and I had one more day to bird as we headed back. Today, We stopped at the Huck Finn Pond and Fish Hatchery where I was finally able to photograph a Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/295117679) and get my lifer Lewis’s Woodpecker (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/295118186). This was quite possibly one of my best trips yet for birds and I love to explore this area more for birds like Gray Flycatchers, Ash-Throated Flycatchers, Pinyon Jays, Juniper titmice, Bewick’s Wrens, Sagebrush Sparrows and other “PJ” forest specialist and desert west species as well as look foe more mountainous species like band-tailed pigeons, Black Swift, Three-Toed woodpecker, Falcons, Golden eagles, Thrushes, Grosbeaks and more. I’m interested in hearing where I could go for more of these birds. I’m headed to Grand Junction and western Colorado like Glenwood Springs in a week and also head to the Great Sand Dunes and North New Mexico near Taos in August. I’m open to any suggestions in finding more birds and also listening to the trips you have been on recently.
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Here are a couple of resources to get you started:
Colorado Birding Trail: Western Colorado
I’m far more familiar with locations on the Front Range, but hopefully some Western Slope hikers can chime in with specifics.