Our
destination this day was Pike’s Stockade in Conejos County where both
yellow-billed cuckoos and southwest willow flycatchers have been seen. Just yards from the entrance gate we drove
past a small calf curled up beside the road. We weren’t sure if it was still
alive but indeed it was. We gave it some bottled water and then managed to lift
it through the barb wire fence into the field with the other cows. We were
hopeful that it would reunite soon with its mother.
As
we walked down the road leading into Pike’s Stockade we encountered a creature
of a different sort – a rattlesnake lying across the gravel. We took a photo of
it but gave it a wide berth. We also saw a porcupine in a tree. The riparian
area adjacent to Pike’s Stockade and just north of the Conejos River was full
of an assortment of birds including southwest willow flycatcher, downy
woodpecker, prairie falcon, yellow warbler, turkey vulture, several species of
swallows, common nighthawk, American robins, black-headed and red-winged
blackbirds, mourning dove, meadowlark and horned lark. We are certain that we
heard the call of a yellow-billed cuckoo off in the distance during our calf
rescue but we were unable to spot one.
Driving
north towards Alamosa on County Road 21 we saw 4-5 snowy egrets, several
white-faced ibises and some killdeer in and along an irrigation ditch.
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