Last Chance, Washington County, July 18, 2012

[Gary Koehn]

Yesterday I stopped by Last Chance and it almost broke my heart.  Much of the town and importantly, it's famous migrant trap, was burned out by a wildfire on June 25.  The fire burned 45, 000 acres.  The pond is still present but all of the ground foliage and leaves on trees and shrubs are gone.  Here are some photos of what Last Chance looks like now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7600278124/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7600278728/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7600277758/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7600277226/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingbird42/7600280366/

The last photo is of the prairie around Last Chance.  As you can see, as a result of  recent rain, it already looks green and healthy.  I wonder if Last Chance will ever be a migrant stop- over in future years.  Time will tell.

Here are the birds I saw in about 30 minutes of birding there:

House Sparrows  25

Western Kingbird  15

Brown Thrasher  3

House Finch  3

Lark Sparrow 1

Red-winged Blackbird 3

Robin 2

Cliff Swallow  8

Kildeer 3

Barn Swallow  8

Eurasian Collared Doves  5

Does anyone know if trees that have lost their leaves and are scorched on the outside have any chance of surviving.

Gary Koehn
Colorado Springs

[Barry]

Westword had a blog entry today about Last Chance after the fire, including several more photos: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/07/last_chance_colorado_fire_photos.php

Barry Gingrich
Broomfield County