Listing Through Life

lepus californicus

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 — 8:20 pm

Pueblo County, Colorado — Lake Pueblo State Park

It was dark but I was reluctant to leave. I knew I may never again get a chance to wander around Colorado. I decided to drive the park roads one last time in hopes of finding a Poor-will. I drove along the road that runs along the north shore of the reservoir, then pulled into the Juniper Breaks camping area where I’d seen the Juniper Titmouse two hours earlier.

I circled the picnic area loop and headed back toward the main road. A huge hare ambled across the road in front of the car and stopped in the roadside grass at the edge of a huge field of very short, dry grass. I stopped my car about eight feet away. I could tell it was a jackrabbit by its size and the length of its ears, but I couldn’t see the tail in the dark. (It was off to the side out of the beams of my headlights.) It had its ears laid back along its back.

I said to it out the open window, “OK, if you’re going to stay there …” I pulled up about 15 feet to a side road and made a U-turn. I stopped with my headlights shining directly on the jackrabbit. It looked back at me over its shoulder, then ambled forward into the field out of the light. I could see that it stopped again, so I turned on my high beams. Again it ambled forward until it was out of the light and began grazing.

It was at least twice the size of a Cottontail with huge black-tipped ears. The fur was brownish-gray (as much as I could tell in the dark). When it moved away in lazy hops from the light, I could plainly see that the top of its tail was black.

baeolophus (from baio, little, and lophus, crest) ridgwayi (for Robert Ridgway, American zoologist and curator)

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 — 6:33 pm

Pueblo County, Colorado — Lake Pueblo State Park

I walked along the river below the dam expecting to see a lot of migrants. I saw very little, migrant or otherwise. It was too late in the day to drive to another location, but I didn’t want to give up on Colorado birding with two hours of daylight left. I decided to make a determined attempt to find a Juniper Titmouse. The information I found on the internet said they could be found in the junipers on both sides of the lake.

I drove west along the north shore and soon came to the Juniper Breaks camping area. Scattered stunted junipers grew over a 40-acre patch on the bluffs above the lake. The area was cut by several gullies and crossed by roads and camp sites. I parked and began walking.

That high up above the lake the wind was strong. All I had to drink was a bottle of water that was hot by this time. I wandered around and saw nothing. I wandered around some more and saw nothing. I left the road and wandered down into a gully and saw two small birds flash into a juniper. I stalked them carefully and discovered a pair of American Goldfinches. That was anticlimactic.

I kept wandering and finally heard a faint chip note. By this time, I was chasing down anything that even remotely hinted at bird. It took me at least five minutes before I could determine which juniper the noise came from. It was another 10 minutes before I saw a tiny drab bird flit from one tree to another. I followed and soon determined there were two in the area. At one point I lost them, but I walked in the direction they were last seen going and soon heard them again. They were in a 10-foot high juniper on the edge of a gully. I stood right next to the tree and peered into the branches.

Finally the birds decided to cooperate. They were moving rapidly through the branches in typical chickadee-titmouse fashion. At one point I heard a fairly loud tapping coming from the tree. One came over to my side of the tree and foraged around within four feet of where I stood. I put down my binoculars and saw it well without them. They stayed in that tree for about five minutes, then flew off. I went off in the opposite direction to try to track down an interesting bird I’d seen while stalking the titmice, but I never found it.

The one I saw well was a dull gray-brown all over with a short, scraggly crest. It was smaller than a Tufted Titmouse.

cyomys ludovicianus

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 — 5:46 pm

Pueblo County, Colorado — Lake Pueblo State Park

Lake Pueblo State Park was a reservoir on the Arkansas River behind a large dam. The area around the lake consisted of desert bluffs with some areas of scattered junipers and a lot of rocks. After birding on the south shore and below the dam, I drove along the north shore. Right along the road below the dam there was a flat area of about 20 acres with black dirt and scattered grass. I saw a few mounds in the dirt and two Prairie Dogs were moving nearby. One was down on all fours, scooting around on the ground. The other was standing upright on the mound. I stopped to look at them, but they were too far away for me to see the tails, the key feature of Prairie Dog identification.

I pulled forward a short way and saw another one along the road on the right. It stood upright and looked at my car, then ran down the bank into a grassy field. A few minutes later it ran back up the bank and across the road into the field where the mounds were located. It ran sort of hunched up, belly high off the ground, with a bit of sideways motion to its gait.

They had longer legs than a ground squirrel and were quite a bit larger than the Rock Squirrels I saw earlier in the day. Their faces were longer and their noses were boxier too. The fur was sandy yellow. The tail was about three and a half inches long and pretty scraggly. I was supposed to see a black tip, but it wasn’t obvious. It was hard to get a good look from the angles I had. When the one ran across the road, I did see that the final inch was darker than the rest, so they certainly weren’t any of the white-tailed species. Based on this, and the range, I figure they had to be Black-tails. They didn’t have any black fur on their faces. From the ones in the field I heard a yip-yip call.

callipepla (from kallos, beautiful, and peplos, a ceremonial robe) squamata (scaly)

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 — 4:36 pm

Pueblo County, Colorado — Lake Pueblo State Park

After watching the California Gulls and White-faced Ibis for a while, I walked along the shore of the lake. I soon came to a bluff of white rocks that rose about 50 feet above the Southshore Marina. I climbed up on the rocks and walked across the dry hard ground between the clumps of vegetation.

Two pheasant-like birds flushed from about 10-feet in front of me and flew about 50 feet to the bare rocks on the edge of the bluff. One of them disappeared over the edge. The other stopped in the shade of a small bush. As I got closer, it also walked down over the edge. I followed and didn’t see them anywhere at first. I soon spotted them about 60 feet off to my right rear, running over the rocks into the brush.

Later I saw several more. One was along the edge of the road near the Juniper Breaks picnic area. Another pair ran off into the shrubby field by the Northshore Marina. A third pair was walking along the dirt on the flats along the lake. All off them were moving away from me, but not in a panic. They walked quickly, fully upright, looking around with jerky motions of their heads.

They had buffy crests with white tips that stuck up to a point. Their backs were flat brown. Their sides and bellies were mottled brown and sandy white. It looked like they had gray scales on their breasts and hind necks.

larus (ravenous seabird) californicus (of California)

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 — 4:15 pm

Pueblo County, Colorado — Lake Pueblo State Park

There were 47 California Gulls below the visitor center. Most of them were standing on a sand bar about 15 feet off the shore of the lake not far above the dam. Others were standing in shallow water right next to the bar near a large flock of pink-breasted Franklin’s Gulls. A few were flying over the lake nearby and a few were swimming. Some of them were preening.

They were your basic gulls, white with a gray mantle and black wing tips. They were quite a bit larger than the Franklin’s Gulls. The bill was yellow with a red spot on the lower mandible near the tip and a thin black line across both mandibles. Their eyes were dark and their legs were yellow.