High Line Canal Field Notes: Inaugural Edition
When I set out on this endeavor to bird/blog the entire High Line Canal, I didn't anticipate two things: One, how much interest it would generate when I told people about it and two, just how much time I require to put together the essays for each segment.
I also did not anticipate the situation I would find myself in as a Federal employee this year. Efforts to take care of myself and my colleagues have eaten up a gigantic chunk of time in these first few months of the new year. But I anticipate some of those time commitments becoming much more self-feeding going forward, and so I'm back and more committed than ever to this project. But it's clear I need to find a way to publish more frequently, not just to keep folks engaged, but also to note down things I'm finding as I find them. Because my memory is either not as infallible as it once was, or I'm older and wiser and realize now just HOW fallible it is.
And so this will be the first of a "bloggier" approach to this blog project, keeping you abreast of my progress on the ground much closer to real time. So what have I been up to since I published the essay about Segment 2? Quite a bit it turns out.
(A snoozing Great Horned Owl at Fly'n B Park in Highlands Ranch)
Denver Field Ornithologists Field Trip
Most notably, I was invited by my friend Nate Bond to co-lead an outing for our bird club, the Denver Field Ornithologists. Nate suggested we take a group out to Eisenhower Park (eBird) in south Denver, followed by a jaunt over to Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve (eBird) in Greenwood Village. Both spots are situated along the High Line Canal, one being potentially under-birded (Eisenhower), the other being fairly well-known at this point among area birders (Marjorie Perry). A group of a dozen of us met on the morning of Saturday, March 15, I delivered some information I had scrounged about the namesakes of each place - Mamie Doud Eisenhower and Marjorie Perry - and the group found some fantastic birds, including a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Brown Creeper at Eisenhower, and a Northern Pintail drake at Marjorie Perry. We also had some exciting encounters with some more regular birds - it's my intention to draft up another "quick-hit" post with all the details. It is also now my intention to draft up the notes I created for both of the namesakes and perhaps keep it going, creating something of a loose "biographical dictionary" on the blog for notable namesakes along the length of the canal - keep a look out for those!
Walk with High Line Canal Conservancy Staff
Early on in this project I had tagged the High Line Conservancy in one of my posts on Instagram, and generated interest with their social media manager Aubrey Cox. And so since I last posted I walked Segment 4 with Aubrey, and he was kind enough to drop me a spotlight on the Conservancy's socials a few weeks back. If you're here because you saw me there - welcome!
Segments Walked
As you can probably guess, if I walked Segment 4 with the Conservancy, I have also walked Segment 3. And I've gone even farther, walking Segments 5 and 6. I'm currently working on researching/writing the essay for Segment 3 - expect some lay preaching on the spiritual side of birding and a historical focus on the catastrophic floods of 1965. Future essays for those segments I expect will touch on the ranching history of the area, some explication of the construction of the High Line itself, and perhaps more - we'll see!
On the birding side of things, I've been thinking a lot about cavity-nesting critters along the High Line. At Fly'n B Park (eBird) last weekend, I was alerted to a Great Horned Owl nesting in a cavity in a cottonwood right along the busy trail. And this morning walking along Segment 6 I spotted a pair of raccoons curled up cozily in another cavity. It instantly makes me think about all the other species that use the cavities - all the woodpeckers, nuthatches, starlings, swallows, owls, kestrels, and others that rely on those spaces for good homes. Which leads me to further ponder the current situation with those trees and what the future may bring. I have some digging to do.
(Two raccoons were literally holed up in a cottonwood along Segment 6 in Highlands Ranch)
Future Plans
As I keep working on the full essays, expect more roundups like this (perhaps a bit shorter because more regular) as well as other shorter-form posts. I'm thinking about revamping my Flickr profile as well and putting all of the photos I take along the way up there. I have long had qualms with Meta, have not been on Facebook for years, and have recently taken down my personal Instagram. It's my intention to do away with my @westdenverbirder handle in the future too, though as the main way I've marketed this blog that plan may have to wait. It's a good opportunity to remind anyone who's reading this though that I do offer notifications by email too (sign up here). I manually manage the email list and I do not plan to use it more than about twice a month, if you're worried about your inbox.