Random Bird Notes from Chaffee County, Colorado
Random Bird Notes from Chaffee County, Colorado.
On July 15th I left Salida, Colorado (altitude 7050), for a short trip to timberline, my destination being Bass Lake, a typical alpine lake at an altitude of about 11,000 feet.
In the vicinity of Salida, Western Robins, Red-winged and Brewer Blackbirds, House Finches, English Sparrows, Western Vesper, and Western Savanna Sparrows and Black-headed Grosbeaks were very common. One pair of Kildeer were also seen, that were evidently nesting.
About seven miles from Salida I saw several young Mountain Bluebirds just able to fly, and a little further on (at about 8,000) several Magpies were seen. Camp was pitched at Poncha and the next morning, soon after leaving there, I saw several Desert Horned Larks and a Brewer Sparrow on a sage brush covered mesa. From here on, the country is very rough, the hills rising abruptly and no timber occurring except the cottonwood trees in the creek bottoms, until the top of the mesa is reached which is covered with a heavy growth of pine and spruce.
About five miles above Poncha I saw several Broad-tailed Hummingbirds in a small patch of thistles and a little farther on a Green-tailed Towhee. After a long steady climb we reached Garfield, Chaffee County, twenty miles from Salida and at an altitude of about 10,000 feet, and here I saw Gray-headed Juncos and English Sparrows feeding in the streets of the town.
We arrived at Bass Lake about five P.M. and found a very pretty lake, just at timber line, surrounded by very high mountains. From this spot half a dozen peaks in sight were over 14,000 feet high.
On the 17th I flushed a Gray-headed Junco from a cunningly concealed nest under the edge of a juniper bush. It contained four young about a week old. I saw a number of these birds around the lake but found no other nests. Near here in the down timber and rocks I found one small White-tailed Ptarmigan chick, and one Rosy Finch feeding on the shores of the lake. Three Clarke Crows were seen near the lake and on the return trip the only new bird seen was a fine Western Tanager.
