Summer now envelops South Platte Park, in Littleton, Colorado. While most of the activity was concentrated along the River and its floodplain lakes during the colder months, winter flocks have departed for the north and the riparian woodlands have come alive with the color and sound of our fair weather songbirds.
The ponds and lakes now attract double-crested cormorants, pied-billed grebes and permanent waterfowl such as mallards, gadwalls, common and hooded mergansers, wood ducks and Canada geese. Non-breeding white pelicans and western grebes also grace the pools and stragglers, including shorebirds and white-faced ibis, still visit the Park. Killdeer and spotted sandpipers feed along the mudflats while beaver and muskrats ply the open waters or mend their homes.
The woodlands and meadows harbor a mix of noisy and colorful summer birds, including yellow warblers, yellow-breasted chats, common yellowthroats, house wrens, gray catbirds, western wood pewees, northern orioles, eastern and western kingbirds, blue-gray gnatcatchers, broad-tailed hummingbirds and lesser goldfinches, joining the permanent residents. Red-winged blackbirds call from the cattails, tree and barn swallows strafe the ponds, great blue herons and snowy egrets stalk the shallows and a variety of raptors, including red-tailed hawks, Swainson's hawks, Cooper's hawks, great horned owls, American kestrels and an occasional bald eagle, patrol the refuge. At dawn or dusk, visitors may also encounter mule deer, red fox and coyotes at South Platte Park.
