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| Holden House outdoor comfort |
Spring is coming alive in the Pikes Peak Region and Holden House 1902 Bed and Breakfast Inn is ready to roll out the glorious garden path and homespun hospitality for your arrival. Click here to make a reservation now.
Guests will want to make your reservations soon to join us on Saturday, May 11, 2013 for the 20th Annual Hummingbird Festival in Colorado Springs’ North Cheyenne Cañon Park. This is the 20th Annual festival dedicated to these quick winged flyers. The festival will be held at the Starsmore Discovery Center (2120 S. Cheyenne Cañon Road) from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and will include hummingbird programs, educational and nature product vendors, hummingbird native plant sale, food, and more. This is a public event and all donations go directly to the operation of North Cheyenne Cañon Park and its programs. Cheyenne Cañon Park is owned by the City of Colorado Springs and maintained in partnership with the City and the Friends of Cheyenne Cañon. Visit www.cheyennecanon.org or call 719-385-6086 for info.
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| The 20th Annual Hummingbird Festival May 11th |
And, just in case you miss the Hummingbird Festival, the Pikes Peak Area offers ample opportunity for bird enthusiasts to spy even the most elusive feathered friends.
Air Force Academy: The Air Force Academy, located on the north end of Colorado Springs, is a major nature preserve and tourist attraction in addition to being a major military academy.
Ute Valley Park: The craggy bluffs of Ute Valley Park isolate this area from surrounding urban sprawl.
Garden of the Gods: Not only can you see world-famous scenery here, but the birding is good as well. The habitat is mostly pinyon-juniper and foothills scrub, and species such as Lazuli Bunting, Spotted Towhee, and Virginia’s Warbler are common. Keep an eye out overhead for White-throated Swifts and Prairie Falcons, and on the rocks for Canyon and Rock Wrens. The hummingbird feeders at the visitor’s center can be excellent during the late summer.
Sondermann Park: Trails access good foothills scrub and some riparian growth, with species such as Lazuli Bunting, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Black-headed Grosbeak, and others present.
Stratton Open Space: This large open space has a variety of habitats, from foothills scrub, ponderosa, small reservoirs, and riparian. Foothills breeders and all three nuthatches can be found, as well as a good variety of corvids, and sometimes ducks during the winter
North Cheyenne Canon Park: The park road is narrow, winding and often busy with people, but there are several places to pull over and explore the mid-elevation riparian habitats along the rushing stream, or the Ponderosa forests. If you are lucky, you might see a Band-tailed Pigeon.
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| Promontory Park-a short walk from the inn |
Cheyenne Mountain State Park:This state park, which opened in 2006, offers beautiful views of Cheyenne Mountain to the west and the plains to the east. Miles of trails wind through a terrific sample of habitats of the southern foothills, with extensive scrub oak and Ponderosa Pine woodlands as well as cliff faces with Canyon and Rock Wrens, swallows and swifts, nesting raptors and rattlesnakes. Virginia’s Warblers breed in the foothills scrub habitat.
Aiken Canyon: This Nature Conservancy reserve has some of the best pinyon-juniper habitat in the area, and can be a good place to look for specialties of that habitat, including Juniper Titmouse, Bushtit, and Ash-throated Flycatcher.
Bear Creek Regional Park and Nature Center: Outside, two miles of self-guiding nature trails wind through the short grass prairie, scrub oak woodlands and cottonwood riparian communities. Songbirds and various bird species abound throughout this beautiful and natural trail system.
Fountain Creek Regional Park: This is among the best migrant birding spots in the Colorado Springs area, with marshes, riparian groves, and thickets. The bird list here includes most of the eastern migrants, many riparian breeders, and rails and Marsh Wren.
For more birding opportunities, check out these websites:
Colorado Birding Trail
City of Colorado Springs
El Paso County Parks