Late April is a great time to visit the Transition Zone forest of the Colorado Front Range foothills. Also known as the Montane or Yellow Pine Zone, this forest of open ponderosa pine woodlands (on south facing slopes) and dense Douglas fir forest (on shaded hillsides) stretches between elevations of 7000 and 9000 feet. One of the better locations to explore this life zone is Mt. Falcon Park, in Jefferson County, just west of Metro Denver.
Yesterday morning, the woodlands of that Park were alive with the sound of ravens, Steller's jays, gray-headed juncos, mountain chickadees, hairy woodpeckers and all three nuthatches (white-throated, red-breasted and pygmy). Mountain and western bluebirds hunted on the meadows, joined by Townsend's solitaires, robins, black-billed magpies and chipping sparrows. White-throated swifts zoomed along the canyon walls, not yet joined by violet-green swallows; other summer residents yet to arrive include western tanagers, MacGillivray's warblers, black-headed grosbeaks, lesser goldfinches, solitary vireos and a host of mountain flycatchers. Though Williamson's sapsuckers and blue grouse were surely present, I did not encounter them on my visit.
Common mammals of the Transition Zone include Colorado chipmunks, golden-mantled ground squirrels, Abert's squirrels and mule deer; while bobcats, black bears and mountain lions patrol Mt. Falcon, they are rarely seen. Birders and naturalists who appreciate solitude are advised to visit the Park on weekdays or early on weekend mornings since crowds of bikers, hikers and dog-walkers are common by mid morning, especially on warm-weather weekends.
