Saturday, July 7, 2012

Pikes Stockade and a Lifer

It was here in February of 1807 that Army Lieutenant and explorer Zebulon M. Pike established a log fort at what he thought at the time was the Red River.  After raising the American flag, scouts from New Mexico informed him that he was now in Spanish Territory.  Badly outnumbered, Pike accompanied the scouts to Santa Fe, where he was accused of being a spy and detained for a number of months.  Pike was released in Texas in July 1807 and later died as a Brigadier General in the war of 1812.
(Birding Hotspots of South-central Colorado by John J. Rawinski.)

The stockade itself is on land owned by the State Historical Society, the adjacent lands are managed by the BLM.

Side note: I believe this site is also known to have about 90% of all mosquitoes in Colorado!

Despite all the mosquitoes, we did see quite a few birds, including a lifer for us:
Willow Flycatcher

While our friends are seeing lots of bears and moose, guess what we see a lot of ?

Porcupines in trees!

It was a beautiful Colorado day and we enjoyed being out and about.
Showy Milkweed
Mule Deer
Black-headed Grosbeak
Unknown Dragonfly
Eastern Kingbird
Monarch Butterfly
Horned Lark
Mourning Cloak


2 comments:

  1. I'm hard-pressed to say which is my favorite picture this time... I love the Porcupine... but then the dragonfly is really fascinating.... and... yes,, the mourning cloak is exceptional... Ah... heck.. I love them all. Your new life bird is one of the endangered species protected at Sevilleta NWR in New Mexico... one year we helped plant 6,000 willow trees hoping the willow flycatcher would nest in those instead of the dreaded salt cedar. Don't know how that turned out....

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  2. It's been a long time since I've seen a porcupine, and I don't know that I've ever seen a willow flycatcher.

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