On a Wing and a Prayer: AMB Field Trip: The Gull Trip (Pueblo Reservoir)

A few days after our gull lecture, we head down south early (WAY too early for this weary body) in search of gulls on Pueblo Reservoir. I luck into riding with the trip leaders, which is something that frequently happens to me. Really, it's luck. It's not like I leap into the leader's car as soon as the offer is made. (Don't believe the people who say otherwise.)

But it sure is nice. I see it as a chance to have a personal birding guide, and this strategy - er, um, I mean, continued stroke of good fortune - has given me lots of personal birding guiding.

In fact, the guiding starts early on this morning. As we drive between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Nick Komar - our gull expert and trip leader - points out lots and lots of gulls flying in the sky. Cool! This is a great sign that we'll see lots of gulls on this trip.

But first, before heading to the gulls, we stop by a little pond that is filled with waterfowl - but almost no gulls. That's okay. I've never seen so many Canvasbacks in one place. I'm so excited by that that I completely forget to take any photos.

Scaled Quail

We hang out at the pond for a little while, then head to a private home in west Pueblo. To be truthful, since I'm not driving, I don't really pay close attention to the logistical details. So we drive up to this house, and - immediately! - see a bunch of Scaled Quail. Life bird! I'm so excited that I can barely contain myself. Not so much because this is a life bird, but rather because they are so gosh-darned cute. Who can see one of these birds and not fall in love?

But we've been told - apparently - that we need to stay in our cars. So I'm trying to get photos from the wrong side of the back seat of a car; photos of fast moving (if not terribly small, thank heavens for small favors) birds that don't like to hang out in the open. My car mates have moved on to observing Goldfinches (Lesser, they determine) on the feeders, but I'm a bit obsessed with the quail. My backseat mate is Hugh Kingery, who also happens to be the godfather of the entire Audubon education program, including both the Beginning Birding Class (which I took several times) and this AMB program. Now, Hugh has had hips replaced, so you would not expect him to offer - as he does - to swap seats with me (remember, we've been told *not* to get out of the car) so I can get a better chance of a photo of the quail. We're like teenagers at a Chinese Fire Drill, rearranging ourselves in the back seat. I love this moment. In fact, it's one of my favorite moments thus far in the AMB program, just because it's fun and it shows the true spirit of a great teacher, doing gymnastics in the car just to let me get a better view.

Sadly, the effort is really a bust. The quail don't cooperate. Sigh.

Curve-billed Thrasher

But wait! There's more opportunity! After a little while, people start getting out of cars. I've thought we were restricted to cars, but now the homeowner, Margie, is coming out of her house, and we're being directed to visit her back yard.

And. Oh. My. It's a birder's nirvana.

The first cool thing is a Curve-billed Thrasher, sitting on a shrub, singing. I try to get a good shot, and get a barely recognizable one before the bird flies. But it turns out that it doesn't matter. We end up spending a bunch of time in this bird haven, and eventually the birds ignore us and start doing their everyday bird thing. That means that the quail - oh, so many of them, and so cute! - run rampant on the fringes of the yard. A White-winged Dove flies out of the yard, but we find it through binocs on the roof of a neighbor's house. There are all kinds of birds around.

Curve-billed Thrasher, still singing

But the coolest birds around are the Thrashers that decide we're not a threat, and they start singing. And singing. And singing. A few of us with cameras make our way up to the thrashers, and they don't seem to mind at all. What a fabulous experience: being serenaded by these really cool birds.

Finally, it's time to leave, since our target birds - the gulls? anyone remember that this is a trip to see gulls? - are theoretically out at Pueblo Reservoir.

We stop at the marina, and there are no gulls. None. Well, maybe a Ring-billed Gull or two, but not the gulls we've come to see: not by volume or by variety.

Parking lot Canyon Towhee

I've been alerted that we might see Canyon Towhees here, but the word is that they are "parking lot" birds, so I'm expecting parking lot quality photos. And the Towhees do not disappoint: that's what I get, parking lot photos. But still, it's a treat to see them since they don't occur further north, in my home birding arena.

But then as we all head back to cars to continue our search for gulls on the rez, two of our group split off, following a sound that they've heard. This is the most common danger in a field trip: that people go off in another direction, chasing a bird. In today's case, the guys don't know *what* they're hearing it until we accidentally flush the bird, and it sits in a shrub right in front of us for an instant. Before I even know what the bird is, I have my camera up, snapping just one photo before the bird flies. What luck: a non-parking-lot-quality Canyon Towhee!

Canyon Towhee

The rest of the day spent around the reservoir brings us lots of variety of birds. We have raptors (Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks) and ducks and sparrows and other waterfowl. We have a (rare-for-here) Red-throated Loon, swimming way off in the distance in the company of a Common Loon. Quite a treat, and another lifer for me.

Belted Kingfisher

But the gulls (remember, this is a gull trip?), oh where are the gulls? Finally, in mid to late afternoon, they start arriving, and we find a large flock of them across the reservoir, a place we've already visited today. There's only one thing to do: drive back over to get a better look. Our gull expert and leader spots a Mew Gull among this flock that is otherwise all Ring-billed Gulls. Life bird #3 for the day! But try as we may to get good looks and good photos of the thing, the bird stays hidden behind a phalanx of Ring-billed Gulls. The bird gods have smiled on me enough for one day, it seems (three life birds!); I'll have to wait until another day to photograph this gull.