To follow up on Brandon's post, I took a spin down to Pueblo Mountain Park yesterday (Thursday) to look for the above critters. Many thanks to Tom Wilberding for some valuable suggestions. Anyway, I was sucessful in both quests. The acorn woodpeckers were not in the usual snag (adjacent to the parking lot), but I found two in the valley just below the snag. When I was preparing to leave, one of them landed in the parking lot not far from my car, so they do not appear to be of a mind to make seeing them too big a challenge. By the way, the little valley in the lower part of the park can be reached via a short path from the parking lot, or if you are feeling particularly lazy, you can drive there after heading over to the basketball court (see below). This little valley is quite birdy- I had a nice flock of evening grosbeaks (they seem to prefer the stream area just below the pond), all three nuthatches, plumbeous vireo, Hammond's flycatcher and lots of other predictable stuff.
I actually had Grace's warbler at two separate locations, and I thought these might be of interest to anyone heading down that way to look for them. To get to the first site, just walk toward the lodge from the parking lot and go around the right end. You'll soon come to an old-fashioned metal clothes-line setup; there was a very cooperative singing bird there. To reach the second site, drive out of the opposite end of the parking lot (to the left of the building- I'm not sure what it is) and continue for a couple hundred yards down a draw and up the other side. You will come to an old concrete basketball court- strange looking affair with walls. Anyway, just beyond this court was where I found the other Grace's (per Brandon's comments)- also singing. I could not locate the hooded, however. Good luck and good birding! Norm Lewis Lakewood -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
