Pikes Peak Birds - El Paso County

[Lee Farese]

Hi All,

Just returned from a two-day trip up Pikes Peak, and a couple observations of note:

- A band-tailed pigeon was 'singing' this morning at 11,500ft in subalpine Spruce/Limber Pine woods. Looking at eBird, this is not completely outlandish, but definitely seemed unusual.

- A white-tailed ptarmigan on the East Face on the mountain. (They're a pretty hard bird to peg down on Pikes.)

- A golden eagle high up just off the summit. There is a resident pair I often see on the mountain, but it's always a treat nonetheless.

Lots of other good birds around. Hermit thrushes are still singing in the subalpine woods, though the kinglets seem to have quieted down a bit. Many Virginia's warblers where the foothills and montane habitat meet on the bottom three miles. Also, I was seeing white-crowned sparrows as high as 14,000ft - I am used to them being abundant in the krummholz habitat at timberline, but usually not so much higher.

Other interesting non-avian observations included colorado bighorns and several calling pika on the East Face. Also the white ochroleucum variety of Monkshood at No Name creek, and my first Star Gentian (Swertia perennis) of the summer. 

Lee Farese

Colorado Springs