Mt. Falcon Park, in Jefferson County, is one of the best sites close to Denver to study the flora and fauna of the Montane Zone. Cloaking the foothills, from 6000 to 9000 feet, this belt is characterized by open ponderosa pine woodlands and meadows in sunny areas and dense forests of Douglas fir on shaded, north-facing slopes. Also called the Transition Zone, it stretches from the lower and drier foothill shrublands to the higher and wetter Subalpine Forest.
Presented with another mild, sunny morning along the Front Range, I decided to head up to Mt. Falcon Park, which sprawls atop a rolling, foothill plateau; bounded by Bear Creek Canyon to the north and Turkey Creek Canyon to its south, elevations atop the plateau average about 7800 feet. When I arrived, the weather, like that on the Piedmont, was sunny and mild but strong, westerly winds threatened my chance to see many birds. Having learned from past experience, I hiked to the leeward side of the Park to escape the wind and found, as expected, that many of the birds had done the same. Perched on a boulder at the edge of a meadow, I enjoyed the early morning serenity, broken only by the occasional posse of trail bikers.
An excellent variety of avian residents paraded past my outpost. Chipping sparrows, dark-eyed juncos (gray-headed race) and pygmy nuthatches were most numerous while crows, ravens, magpies and Steller's jays provided most of the noise. White-throated swifts and violet-green swallows cruised above the meadow where western and mountain bluebirds hunted from dead snags or small pines. Other sightings included Townsend's solitaires, willow flycatchers, lesser goldfinches, broad-tailed hummingbirds, mountain chickadees, pine siskins, western tanagers and, of course, American robins. The highlight of the morning was a golden eagle, soaring high above Parmalee Gulch, west of the Park.
